Emperor of Steel [EN]: Chapter 6

6. The Magi’s Decision

1

Near the west gate of Lamer City, Luke, Philip, and Princess Reina’s party stood on the road leading to the port.

“Was the debt issue resolved smoothly?” Luke asked.

“Yes, yesterday, with Bishop Pascal as a witness, I went to the Imperial Bank and settled it definitively. You should have seen the count’s face, young lord; he looked like he’d eaten dirt…” Pavel, the chamberlain, replied with a smirk, still clearly amused by the memory.

Reina smiled brightly and expressed her gratitude once more. “It’s all thanks to the two of you.”

“Hahaha, it was nothing,” Luke said, waving off her thanks.

Reina’s expression turned serious. “I will repay this favor someday, without fail. Please wait until then.”

“Understood,” Luke replied. He wanted to say that repayment wasn’t necessary, but he didn’t want to dismiss her pride, so he simply nodded.

Toot-toot—!

The regular ship’s whistle blared, signaling its imminent departure.

“Then, it’s time for a sad farewell,” Reina said.

“The end of a meeting is a farewell, and after a farewell, there is another meeting,” Luke replied, quoting a poem by a famous minstrel from the old days. Reina smiled, clearly impressed.

“It’s ‘Wind’s Journey’ by the minstrel Lund. I know it’s a very old song…”

“They say that good songs don’t fade with time,” Luke responded. He had heard that directly from Lund during his Seymon days.

“To know such classics… Young Lord Luke seems much more mature than his age,” Reina commented.

“R-really?” Luke asked, surprised.

“Yes, I was so surprised when I heard you were only seventeen years old!” she exclaimed.

‘Did my way of speaking and acting make me seem like an old man?’ Luke wondered. Because his core was old, he had overlooked it himself. But why didn’t Philip and the vassals of the Lakan Territory find it strange?

The question was soon answered by Philip’s reply. “Hah, our young lord has always had unusual words and actions. He matured quickly because he lost his parents early. Moreover, he became even more mature after waking up from a dangerous accident recently.”

“Oh my, I’m sorry!” Reina quickly apologized, as if her thoughtless words had touched on Luke’s wounds. However, it was a story that was completely irrelevant to Luke, who possessed Seymon’s soul.

“It’s alright. Anyway, we must part now,” Luke said, giving Reina a polite farewell. He wanted to stay with her longer, but he had an important mission to repay his debt and protect the fortress. And there were things to do after reforming the Iron Mages who looked so dejected next to him.

“Please return safely,” Reina said.

“May you be at peace, Princess,” Luke replied. After saying goodbye to Reina, Luke left for the port with the three Iron Mages, a mix of regret and anticipation in his heart.

2

After taking a ship at the port, Luke’s party returned to the territory three days later. When Luke arrived at the lord’s manor, the vassals who had heard the news of his return rushed out like a swarm of bees.

“Young lord! What on earth happened?” one of them exclaimed.

“No matter how urgent the situation was, how could you take away the statue of our ancestor, the symbol of our family!” another cried.

“You must return it immediately!” a third demanded.

Luke smirked at their nagging. “I sold it to the blacksmith? It must be melted down by now.”

“Huuuuh!” The vassals were shocked. They had hoped it wasn’t true, but he had really done it! Some of the shocked vassals even seemed to have seizures.

Hans, the butler, who had tightly closed his eyes, tried to suppress his emotions and spoke to Luke. “So, did you manage to get the 30,000 pesos?”

“No, I only got 2,300 pesos,” Luke replied.

“Hehehe! I knew it,” Derin, the branch manager of the Alon Merchant Guild, said with an unpleasant laugh. Luke frowned at his waddling appearance.

“There are still two more days left, aren’t there?” Luke asked.

“I was curious, so I came early. I was wondering how you would get 30,000 pesos,” Derin said.

“Really? Do you want to know?” Luke asked.

“I’m a merchant, so I’m very curious,” Derin replied sarcastically. Luke strode towards him, rummaged through his pocket, and forcefully shoved something into Derin’s mouth.

“Take this, it’s 30,000 pesos!” Luke exclaimed.

“Kehk!” Derin, who was rolling around on the floor, coughed and spat out the object. His eyes widened as if they would pop out when he saw what had fallen on the ground.

“T-this is!” Derin stammered.

“Yes, it’s a promissory note issued by your guild,” Luke said. At the Gigant Arena, when paying out high dividends, they used promissory notes issued by banks and guilds with high credit ratings instead of gold coins. Thanks to this, Luke was able to bring a large sum of money very lightly instead of carrying around a clunky bag of gold coins.

‘No way! It hasn’t even been ten days, where did this brat get such a large sum of money…?’ Derin carefully examined the promissory note. He thought it might be a forgery, but the pattern and seal on the note, and the texture felt at his fingertips, were definitely from the Alon Merchant Guild.

“H-how on earth?” Derin asked.

“That’s none of your business, and here’s the interest, so get out of my land right now,” Luke said, tossing the remaining gold coins to Derin. However, Derin couldn’t leave like this. He could have completed his mission safely in just two more days, but such an unfortunate event had occurred at the end!

As Derin stood there blankly, Luke finally drew his sword. “Get out of here!!”

“Hieeek, y-yes!” Derin, terrified by Luke’s fierce momentum, ran away as if he was rolling.

The vassals, who were as surprised as Derin, were just gaping. They had thought that he wouldn’t be able to repay the debt, but such a twist had happened!

“Y-young lord. Where did you get that money?” Dixon, the finance officer, asked. Luke simply retorted, “I made it grow.”

“With 2,300 pesos?” Dixon asked.

“Yes,” Luke replied.

“How on earth did you manage to make it grow more than ten times in less than ten days?” Dixon asked. At the vassals’ questioning, Luke only said ‘secret’ and went inside the lord’s manor. Naturally, all eyes turned to Philip, who was left alone. It was clear they wanted him to tell the truth immediately.

‘Haa, this has become a headache,’ Philip thought. He couldn’t recklessly tell the truth that Luke had won money at the gambling house and then hit the jackpot at the Gigant Arena match. The elders, who were full of justice and chivalry, would not stand still. They would surely make a fuss, saying that the young lord had tarnished the family’s honor, and that he had not served his lord properly, and would impose disciplinary action.

‘How can I tell the story so that I can get through this relatively safely?’ Philip was racking his brain. As he hesitated, trying to figure out how to get out of this, Rogers, the commander of the knights, twitched his eyebrows and urged him. “What are you doing! Tell me what happened right now!”

“That is, the young lord…” Philip began. Although it was a short time, thanks to his hard work, Philip was able to distort and embellish the incident.

“…So, you’re saying that the young lord had to go to the gambling house to repay the debt?” Hans, the butler, asked with a stern face, and Philip nodded. “That’s right. He was lamenting that there was no way to raise a large sum of 30,000 pesos in a short period of time, and he made a decision.”

“You fool! Even so! What if the young lord had lost all his money at the gambling house? If you had gone as a guard, you should have stopped him or contacted us!” one of the vassals shouted angrily.

“I tried to stop him at first. But the young lord was like a god of gambling,” Philip replied.

“A god of gambling?” the vassal asked.

“That’s right. He won every game against the cheating of the vile cheaters. Especially the way he made a clover straight flush without even showing his cards at the end was really… Kya! If the elders had seen that scene, they would have understood the young lord’s heart!” Philip promoted Luke’s performance to the old vassals, adding emotions and interjections as if he were a speaker reciting a grand epic on stage. However, the vassals’ expressions were lukewarm. They didn’t know where the young lord had learned to gamble, but they didn’t think it was something to be proud of, whether he was good at it or not.

“So, did you get 30,000 pesos from the gambling house?” Hans asked.

“No, I only earned about 10,000 pesos and went to the Gigant Arena…” Philip explained in detail what had happened at the Gigant Arena. He didn’t talk about the secret art of reviving old magic stones because Luke had told him not to talk about it. Instead, he focused on what kind of fighting spirit Luke had shown while riding the old Gigant.

Then, the expressions of the vassals, who had been stiff until just now, softened a little.

“Huh, such a thing!” one of them exclaimed.

“To help the princess of a fallen nation…” another said. To help a kind princess in a difficult situation. This was a glorious deed worthy of the descendants of the great knight Lakan.

“Then that promissory note must be the dividend you received for betting on the princess’s side. It’s not chivalrous to win money by betting, but can’t we see it as a reward for goodwill?” When Maron, the chief priest of the territory, said this, everyone looked a little awkward but seemed to understand. Even Hans, the most stubborn, nodded and asked sternly one last time. “Is it clear that the story you just told is not a lie?”

“Yes! I swear on Mars, the god of war, that it is the truth!” Philip exclaimed. No knight would lie on Mars, the god of war, and not any other god. Hans, who was a knight in his younger days and had also worked as a Gigant rider, had no choice but to believe Philip’s oath.

However, he didn’t know that Philip hadn’t mentioned that the young lord had won 210,000 pesos, not 30,000 pesos.

“Anyway, the debt has been repaid, and we know the reason, so how about moving to the conference room?” Dixon asked.

“Let’s do that,” the vassals nodded in agreement to Dixon’s suggestion.

They had rushed out after receiving a report that the young lord had arrived while they were in the middle of their regular meeting.

‘Whew, did I barely get through that?’

Philip let out a sigh of relief as he watched the vassals’ backs as they headed toward the lord’s manor.

Then, Rogers stayed behind, looked at him, and patted him on the shoulder as he approached.

“You’ve worked hard.”

“No, I didn’t really work hard.”

When you think about it, it wasn’t hard work at all; he had eaten delicious food and even had a Gigant [a large, humanoid war machine] match with an expert-level rider, so it was quite an enjoyable outing.

“Is that so? Anyway, make sure you submit a written explanation.”

“A written explanation?”

“No matter what happened, you played a part in the young lord’s escapade.”

“But that was for the sake of the territory’s knights…”

“I know, I know.”

Rogers patted Philip’s shoulder as if he understood everything, then drove the point home.

“Still, write it. You know what will happen if you hide or lie even a little, right?”

At Rogers’ threat, Philip inwardly sighed deeply.

The luck of his recent escapade seemed to be ending in misfortune.

3

Luke, who had entered his room, threw off his jacket and flopped onto the bed.

He was extremely tired from traveling in a state that was far from ideal, but he still couldn’t fall asleep.

It was because of the things he had decided to do in the future.

First, he had succeeded in repaying the debt and protecting the castle. However, two major tasks remained.

The overthrow of the Baroque Imperial Family and the Veritas Magic Tower.

‘Above all, I can never forgive the Veritas Magic Tower.’

Not only did they ruin Katarina’s and his own lives, but they also stole the achievements he had made in the darkness of black magic to expand their authority and power.

‘Even if the mages of the current Veritas Magic Tower have nothing to do with the past, they are still the ones who grew up benefiting from the sins of their predecessors.’

The same was true for the Baroque Imperial Family.

They were enjoying their glory by building an empire with the help of the Veritas Magic Tower.

Shouldn’t that unjust power and glory be taken away?

‘To do that, I need even stronger power than I have now.’

To gain strong power, he had to increase his influence and personal strength.

He had inherited a territory, so he could somehow develop his influence, but the problem was his body.

Due to a black magic curse placed on him by someone unknown, he was weak, and it was difficult to grow stronger through normal methods.

‘I need some special measures.’

After organizing his thoughts, Luke changed his clothes and went outside again. He went to the stable and brought out his horse.

“Young Lord, where are you going?”

The gatekeeper guarding the main gate of the lord’s manor stood in front of Luke, who was riding out on his horse.

It was one thing that he was going out again so soon after returning, but this time he didn’t even have an escort. If he were to encounter any malicious groups, it could be a big problem.

“I’ll be back soon, so don’t worry. If the vassals ask, tell them I went to the castle in front of us.”

“Even if you go, you should at least have an escort…”

Before the gatekeeper could finish speaking, Luke spurred his horse and dashed out of the lord’s manor.

“Young Lord! Wait, Young Lord!” the gatekeeper shouted as he chased after him, but Luke ignored his calls and galloped toward the large castle in front of him.

After passing through a forest densely packed with trees that were easily hundreds of years old, an old castle built of black stone appeared.

This castle, with a pointed tower standing tall in the middle, was the former base that Luke had tried to protect for the past few days, and was known to people as the ‘Demon King’s Castle’.

According to legend, this Demon King’s Castle was built by the Demon King Seymon using stones brought from the demon realm by his demon servants. And he captured thousands upon thousands of humans, offered them as dark sacrifices, and used them like beasts.

“Hmph, if you’re going to make up a story, you should hire a more expensive writer.”

Luke scoffed as he looked at the sign describing the castle’s origin.

There were no demons to use during Seymon’s time.

He had beaten and absorbed the power and abilities of every demon he summoned, or used them as test subjects.

When rebuilding the castle, he received help from the dwarf tribe, and the black stones were basalt he had found nearby.

It wasn’t thousands upon thousands, and he didn’t offer them as dark sacrifices, but he did use some humans like livestock.

However, those guys were slave hunters who captured and sold pitiful members of other races, and they had only paid the price for their crimes.

However, history is always written from the perspective of the victor. The black magician Seymon was remembered by later generations as a very exemplary demon king.

“We’re closed for today… Ah, Young Lord, what brings you here?”

“I just have some business to take care of.”

Luke handed the reins of his horse to the caretaker standing in front of the castle gate and went inside.

Perhaps because the opening hours were over, there were no visitors left in the castle. This was welcome news for Luke, who didn’t want any disturbances.

He walked along the long corridor toward the main hall.

‘I was with Katarina back then.’

Luke recalled old memories.

At the time, while traveling with Katarina, they had urgently sought shelter from the rain and found a ruined castle.

At first, they had only come to escape the rain, but the two, driven by their adventurous spirits, searched the castle and discovered a book left behind by a black magician.

‘I tried to destroy it, but I failed because of the protective magic on the book.’

In the end, the two hid the black magic book in a place only they knew.

Later, Luke, who had become a wreck after losing Katarina, returned here to break the seal on the black magic book for revenge.

That black magic book, filled with the essence of darkness and chaos, had been carried by Seymon ever since.

He could have destroyed it with 9th circle black magic, but he couldn’t bring himself to destroy it because it was one of the few things that allowed him to relive his memories with her.

‘What happened to that book after I died? Did Lakan destroy it? Yes, that frustrating justice fool would have done that.’

Luke, who had entered the main hall, made an absurd expression when he saw the sign erected there.

‘The place where the hero Lakan fought against the Demon King Seymon? What a blatant lie!’

The actual place where he had settled things with Lakan was in the wilderness in front of the castle, where the lord’s manor is currently located.

“How far have these guys distorted things? Huh! What’s this? I sat on such a childish throne?”

A magnificent golden throne.

Luke, or rather Seymon, couldn’t help but be dumbfounded.

He wondered if it was real gold, but when he examined it, it was only thinly plated, and the jewel decorations were also made of glass.

‘Well, if it were real, they would have sold it off a long time ago.’

Luke shook his head and then approached the wall behind him.

“Let’s see, the bricks to push are this one, and that one…”

Luke selected seven of the bricks that made up the wall and pressed them in order.

Perhaps because they hadn’t been used for a long time, the bricks didn’t go in well at first.

He put strength into his fingertips and pushed them in one by one, and they finally began to go in.

Thud! Grrr!

Kukuku—thump!

With a roar, the wall split open to the left and right, revealing a hidden passage.

As Luke entered, the wall returned to its original state on its own.

“As expected, the dwarves’ construction technology is the best. It still works perfectly even after five hundred years.”

The secret passage, covered in dust, showed no signs of anyone having passed through it.

Except for the many cobwebs and dust, it was exactly as Seymon had left it.

Because it was made entirely with the dwarves’ unique knowledge of mechanisms, it probably wouldn’t be detected by mages’ detection magic or treasure hunters’ searches.

After going down the secret passage, Luke soon arrived at a large bronze door.

“I beseech the star spirits shining in the darkness, open the path to truth.”

As Luke recited the password, the magic on the bronze door reacted and the door split open.

And finally, with the musty smell of old air, the underground laboratory revealed itself.

Usually, mages would have a secret space in their residence, and Luke had created a laboratory in this underground area.

“It’s the same as it was five hundred years ago.”

Luke looked around the underground laboratory with a nostalgic gaze.

Cobwebs and dust were everywhere, as if to show the passage of time, and there was even mold in the corners, but all the traces were as they were back then.

Unfinished magic books, flasks that had contained magic solutions, and experiment logs that had been interrupted.

As he read the experiment logs, he clicked his tongue in regret.

“It was an experiment that was almost 90% complete… It’s a shame, but now is not the time to be stuck here.”

Luke opened the ledger where the laboratory’s supplies were recorded.

It was to find the items he needed now.

‘The safe in the third cabinet on the right!’

Luke immediately opened the safe inside the cabinet.

What he took out of the safe was a small sealed glass bottle.

The translucent black liquid inside the glass bottle writhed as if it were alive.

“I found it, the magic energy crystal!”

4

The magic energy crystal.

It was something he had discovered during his special research as the black magician Seymon in the past.

At the time, Luke was increasing his power for revenge.

After subduing the demons he summoned with his own blood, he grew by taking away their magic energy and abilities. He suddenly wondered if this was okay.

This was because any creature that came into contact with magic energy, whether it was a black magician or their familiars, deviated from the norm.

The black magicians, dominated by the demons’ thoughts, went mad and rampaged, and the familiars contaminated by magic energy turned into terrifying monsters.

He didn’t want to give up his humanity, even for the sake of the dead Katarina, so he analyzed magic energy more thoroughly.

In the process, he discovered the very surprising fact that the essence of magic energy was not much different from mana.

Puzzled, he temporarily stopped the related research and began to gather and search through old documents.

‘If you look at the records from the early days of magic, there is no mention of mana or magic energy. The only thing mentioned is Aether!’

Aether is a substance mentioned in mythology.

According to ancient myths, the whole world was filled with Aether when the gods were born.

The properties of Aether mentioned in old documents and myths were as follows.

Aether possessed the characteristics of Divine Force, as well as Mana and Aura, which was mana transformed into physical power.

It even had the darkness and chaos properties of magic energy.

‘In other words, Aether is the root of all power.’

An interesting point was that in ancient times, mages did not simply divide the world into good and evil.

They divided all things into darkness and light, that is, yin and yang, and emphasized the harmonious blending of two opposing properties.

However, later, as magic theory was established, the black and white theory emerged.

In the process, only white magic, that is, the current magic, was recognized as the right path, and spirit magic and dragon language magic were treated as heresies.

The most suppressed of these was black magic, which was virtually classified as a wicked path and became the target of criticism.

From this point on, mages began to emphasize mana instead of Aether.

Why did the theory of viewing magic change?

While pondering this question, Luke realized that the period when magic theory was established coincided with the era of Saint Ramiel, the founder of the Elkasel Order.

‘In the early days of holy power, religion and theology flourished, so magic must have been greatly influenced by them.’

As a result, the dark and chaotic black magic, with its strong negative image, would have been purged. Moreover, the magical energy that formed the basis of black magic was a power mainly used by the demon race.

The demons, who reveled in destruction and slaughter, were impudent beings who scoffed at the words of God, making them perfect targets for criticism.

‘But there was a reason why the demons were like that.’

As he later learned, the demon world, the realm of the demons, was a truly ‘hellish’ environment. Sulfurous smoke floated like clouds in the sky, and the rivers and seas were filled with mercury. It was a desolate world full of all sorts of toxic substances harmful to living things, so the demons had no choice but to prioritize the law of the jungle.

They could only survive by having a simple mindset of devouring the weak and eliminating enemies, and it was natural that they would clash with humans.

Anyway, after learning the truth about the hidden side of history and the ecology of each race, Luke realized that the driving force that allowed the demons to adapt and live in such harsh environments was magical energy. Magical energy had evolved their bodies and souls to suit their environment.

‘Myth says that the world was born from chaos. If so, wouldn’t it be possible to create new life or evolve myself by using magical energy, which has the characteristics of chaos?’

Reaching this point, Seymon focused on summoning demons and extracting magical energy to conduct more in-depth research. The result of collecting and filtering the extracted magical energy was the ‘Magical Energy Crystal’.

“But after going through all that trouble, it turned out to be useless.”

The Magical Energy Crystal did not have enough power to create new life. And even if it did evolve living things, it was only to the level of making fur tougher, bones stronger, or movements faster. Moreover, by this time, Luke was an 8th-circle black mage, far surpassing the realm of humans, so he didn’t particularly need to rely on the Magical Energy Crystal. In the end, the Magical Energy Crystal was forgotten in Luke’s memory.

Then, after awakening in Luke’s body, the thought that he needed strong power came to mind, and he came here.

‘The curse on Lakan’s descendants is strong. But this thing might be able to change this weak body, even if only a little.’

Luke broke the seal on the glass bottle and inhaled the Magical Energy Crystal inside.

“Ugh!”

At first, he felt an unpleasant sensation, as if he had swallowed a live slime, and then his limbs began to tremble. The magical energy concentrated in the Magical Energy Crystal was spreading throughout his body through his blood vessels and nerves.

“Kuaaaak!”

Luke collapsed on the spot and rolled on the floor in agony, as if his whole body was being torn apart. Normally, if an ordinary person came into contact with magical energy, they would either die immediately or become corrupted and transform into a monster. However, the Magical Energy Crystal was different. It had been filtered to remove the demons’ thoughts and the toxic substances of the demon world, making it closer to the primordial Aether [the fundamental substance of the universe]. However, Luke’s frail body could not easily withstand even the filtered magical energy. Or perhaps, because it was closer to the primordial Aether, it was even harder to handle. No record mentioned humans absorbing or handling Aether.

‘Kuh! This level of pain!’

It was comparable to, or even greater than, the pain he felt when he was struck by Lakan’s orichalcum [a mythical metal] holy sword. The pain, which felt as if it was searing his soul rather than his body, did not subside, and Luke’s struggles continued for a while. Then, in an instant, a black smoke-like aura rose from his entire body. Not only that, but Luke’s eyes changed to red pupils with black sclera, like a demon.

“Kill! Destroy! Annihilate everything!”

A sinister cry echoed in his mind. At the same time, sharp claws like those of a beast sprouted from Luke’s fingertips, and his fangs also grew sharp. Has he been overcome by the thoughts or toxic substances embedded in the magical energy?

Luke, who was growling like a beast, slowly rose to his feet.

Whirrrrrrr!

The dense magical energy that erupted from his entire body swirled fiercely, as if it would blow away the underground laboratory.

5

“Kuh! Get away—ah!”

Luke, who had jumped up from his seat, clenched his fists and roared fiercely. At that moment, the magical energy that had been swirling around him disappeared as if it had evaporated. Soon, his eyes returned to normal, and his claws and fangs shrank back to their original size. And the terrible pain that had made him shudder also subsided.

“Tch! To almost be swayed by a mental demon!”

The Magical Energy Crystal did not contain any remnants of the demons’ thoughts. What had just urged him on was his own inner evil, his mental demon. If Luke’s soul had not been that of a black mage who had trained while fighting demons in the darkness, he would have been completely consumed.

“Anyway, it was a success.”

His body felt much lighter than before. His muscles were full of strength, and his breathing was so comfortable that he could run all day. His metabolism had become active, and his whole body was overflowing with vitality.

‘And above all…’

Luke smiled faintly.

A familiar energy was gathering and accelerating in his heart.

‘I’ve restored the Black Circle.’

He had not only strengthened his body with the Magical Energy Crystal but also gained the foundation to use black magic.

“Hah, this is about the 3rd circle level.”

Luke tried using Dark Flame, an offensive black magic, as a test. As he accelerated the Black Circle and implemented the spell in the way he had learned in the past, a brilliant purple flame quickly rose from his hand. But Luke narrowed his eyes.

“Huh? Why is it purple? It should be a black flame.”

Come to think of it, the state of the Black Circle also seemed a bit strange. The vibrations he felt were subtly different compared to before. If he were to compare it to music, the Black Circle Seymon had was like a lonely solo piece, but now it was like a chorus with a mix of different pitches.

“Is it because it’s filtered magical energy?”

Just in case there was something wrong, he tried using other 3rd-circle black magic, but there was no problem with their manifestation. Only the color and vibrations were strangely different. There was another strange thing. It was that there were almost no remnants of magical energy left over from the process of black magic manifestation. At this rate, he wouldn’t even need to go out of his way to hide his magical energy.

“Well, it’s strange, but it’s actually more convenient, so I guess it doesn’t matter.”

Luke, deciding to accept it positively, cleaned up the messy underground laboratory.

‘But the curse’s vibrations on my body are still there.’

The curse was subtle yet quite persistent. Even after accepting the Magical Energy Crystal, it remained unchanged.

‘Unlike ordinary magic, black magic is subordinate. The strong are not affected by the tricks of the weak.’

That meant that the one who cursed Lakan’s bloodline was at least a 3rd-circle mage. No, considering that Lakan was not someone who would be easily defeated by an average black mage, the opponent might be an ultimate 9th-circle black mage, equivalent to Seymon, his past self.

‘But, was there a black mage of my level back then?’

There could be hidden powerhouses in the world, but as far as Luke knew, there were no 9th-circle mages even among the white mages. Anyway, thanks to the Magical Energy Crystal, he was able to reach the 3rd circle. However, it was still far from enough to wash away the grudges of the past. To fight against the Empire and the Veritas Magic Tower, which had comparable influence on the continent, he had to at least reach the same level of power as he had in the past.

“I know all the theories and insights to reach each circle, so there’s no problem in growing to the 9th circle. However, it will take quite a bit of time to gather the magical energy to create a 9th-circle Black Circle…”

Although his body was still young, he could not be optimistic about the future. Perhaps because of the curse, many of Lakan’s descendants had died young from illness. In particular, the human body was surprisingly fragile, and even a small abnormality in the heart or brain could lead to immediate death. If the curse were to exacerbate such illnesses, he would be defeated without even being able to put up a fight.

Luke frowned for a moment, then his face brightened.

“Well, even if the sky falls, there’s always a way out… Magic seems to have developed quite a bit over the past five hundred years, so if I study it extensively, I might find a solution.”

Having decided on a direction, Luke went out to the main hall, opened another secret door, and entered a small room. Thump! As he stepped through the door, a low rumble sounded, and the room, or rather, the elevator, moved downwards. And he descended to a much deeper underground level than the previous laboratory.

One hundred meters underground, there was a huge cavern, and in that place was a facility he had sealed away. It was the Golem Production Workshop. The workshop that produced the golems that had been the main force of the Dark Legion in the past was quietly submerged in the darkness of the abyss.

“Seal release.”

At Luke’s gesture, the magic barrier that had been rejecting unfamiliar intruders disappeared, and the inside of the workshop lit up brightly. And various machines and magical tools that had stopped working were revealed before Luke’s eyes. Luke, who had been looking around, opened his mouth.

“It will be difficult to restart it right away.”

Because it had been sealed, the condition of the facilities was intact. However, the Energia, which supplied energy to the machines, had broken down due to the interruption of mana supply. To fix the Energia, he would need several materials and parts.

‘For now, I should just figure out what needs to be repaired.’

After roughly finishing his work and returning to the main hall, the voices of his retainers and soldiers were echoing loudly throughout the castle.

“Young Lord, where are you?”

“Please come out quickly, Young Lord!”

They must have heard from the gatekeeper that he had gone out and come looking for him.

“Oh, come on! Maybe he’s not even here?”

“I think he lied and went somewhere else…”

Rogers and Philip, who were just entering the main hall, were startled to find Luke sitting on the Demon King’s throne(?).

“Young Lord!”

“No, where on earth were you hiding?”

Luke chuckled at Philip’s question, which was filled with suppressed emotions.

“I didn’t hide. You just didn’t look properly.”

“T-That can’t be… You were definitely not here a moment ago!”

Philip shook his head as if it was absurd. After hearing from the gatekeeper that Luke had gone out, all the soldiers had come and searched the Demon King’s Castle thoroughly. Moreover, he had personally checked this place, the main hall. And yet, he hadn’t found him!

Rogers, who had been glaring at Philip as if scolding him for a moment, turned to Luke and spoke.

“But why did you suddenly come here?”

“I wanted to look around the place where my ancestors’ spirits reside and gather my thoughts. Did I do something wrong?”

“No, you did very well.”

Without knowing it was a blatant lie, Rogers was delighted with Luke’s words and felt very proud.

‘Is that why? Is he looking so confident because he gathered his thoughts?’

The real reason why he looked so confident sitting on the throne was different, but Rogers was just proud.

“I’m hungry, so let’s go back now. Tell the soldiers to stop searching.”

“Yes, I understand.”

Thus, the Young Lord’s runaway(?) incident was brought to a close. No one noticed the true incident lurking behind it.