Genius Wizard Hides His Sword Skills [EN]: Chapter 90

90. Angelus’s Temple (4)

The woman always maintained a composed expression. Even with a knife pressed to her throat, her face remained calm.

“A mask? This is my real face!”

For the first time, a look of genuine bewilderment crossed her face.

“Then you expect me to believe you achieved this much at your age?”

She appeared to be in her early twenties at most. But the magic she wielded was far too advanced for someone so young. Wide-area dispels and black spirit magic weren’t easily mastered. Forbidden magic, not officially taught, typically took even longer to perfect.

[It’s one of two possibilities. Either she’s consumed a great deal of cunning, like the Master of the Magic Tower…]

‘Or she learned forbidden magic to alter her appearance.’

Changing one’s appearance was also a forbidden art, but there was no reason she couldn’t have experimented with such a taboo, given her other choices.

“…Fine. There’s no hiding it now.”

Finally, the woman shook her head. Black haze began to rise around her, swirling and enveloping her body.

As the dark energy brushed her fingertips, the skin on her hands became wrinkled and aged.

As it passed through her torso, her once-straight back gradually hunched over.

“How is it? This is my true form.”

Her tone aged along with her appearance.

Whoosh…

Finally, the black smoke cleared, revealing her original face.

“Huh.”

Drew gasped at the sight. It wasn’t just because of her aged appearance.

Her left face resembled that of a typical old woman.

‘Hmm. So that’s why she hid her appearance.’

The entire right side of her face was melted, as if by fire. The exposed facial muscles and occasional glimpses of white bone were enough to make anyone wince.

“Hehe. Sorry to show you this. Why did you have to make me reveal myself?”

The old woman chuckled awkwardly. Only the left side of her face twitched, making it all the more bizarre.

Though initially surprised, it didn’t take long to adjust.

‘She must have been caught in a firestorm.’

Having spent a long time on the battlefield, he had seen far worse.

“Well, it’s not bad. It’s better to have an honest conversation than to hide behind a ridiculous mask.”

“Oh? You’re not an ordinary one, are you?”

The old woman seemed somewhat curious at my indifferent reaction.

“You couldn’t have such composure at that young age…”

The old woman scanned my face as she continued.

“Did you take some elixir to maintain your youth?”

In the end, she thought I was concealing my appearance as well.

The gruesome corpses, the undead, and the forbidden magic… These were situations that a normal boy couldn’t calmly accept.

“No. This is just how I look.”

But there was no way to say I was reincarnated, nor was there any need to. I was just a slightly unusual fifteen-year-old boy.

“…What?”

The old woman still looked skeptical. Her wrinkled lips twitched again.

“Then what is this swordsmanship? It’s clearly not mana. Did you dabble in forbidden arts as well?”

The old woman pointed to the aura looming over her neck.

“Forbidden arts… Maybe I did.”

With the aura nullified by the Ominous Star, perhaps I had stepped into forbidden territory as well.

The old woman paused, lost in thought.

“…Could it be?”

Just as she was about to speak again.

“Silence, you vile thing! How dare you speak to him!”

Angelus’s voice, sharp as a dagger, echoed from inside the temple.

“So, you were hiding your real appearance after all!”

He seemed to have suspected it, as he wasn’t too surprised by her transformation into an old woman.

“It’s best to kill her immediately, lest she tries something again.”

Angelus hastily began chanting a spell. With the dispel magic circle gone along with the Dullahan, sand spears reappeared at his gesture.

“Wait.”

But it was too early.

“There’s something I need to confirm.”

Angelus understood my intention, but his sand spears remained aimed at the old woman.

“She’s someone who might do anything. She doesn’t use ordinary magic. It’s not enough to simply subdue her.”

“It’ll be fine. If she tries anything, I’ll just cut off her head.”

The sword was close enough to the old woman’s neck to sever it without a chance for her to try anything.

“You understand? If you try anything, you’re dead.”

“…I had no intention of doing so.”

Perhaps still distrustful, Angelus reached out towards the old woman again.

Whoosh!

Blue ropes appeared, binding the old woman’s arms.

“Just in case.”

Angelus had cast a binding spell on her.

“Youngsters are so fearful… Is this how you treat an old woman?”

The old woman clicked her tongue, but.

“Now, no more useless talk. Just answer my questions.”

The initiative in the conversation was mine.

* * *

The seventh district of the Xylo Mountains, Hepta. Inside the stone building nestled in the snowy mountains, a tense silence filled the air.

We brought the old woman inside the temple. Of course, Pragarakh was still pointed at her wrinkled neck.

‘What kind of experiments did she do?’

Before I could even begin questioning the old woman, the various fixtures inside the temple caught my eye. And the scattered pieces of corpses were so disfigured that it was difficult to even recognize their original form.

“Ugh!”

Drew refused to enter and waited outside the temple.

“First, I need to ask what all this is.”

“Hmm. Beautiful works, aren’t they?”

“What?”

“They allow me to wield black magic, so how could they not be beautiful?”

The old woman was genuinely gazing at the chunks of flesh scattered around with loving eyes.

“Were you researching black magic here?”

“As you can see. There’s no better place.”

Deep in the Xylo Mountains.

‘It’s perfect, I guess.’

In this place where harsh snowstorms raged 365 days a year, it was the ideal location to research forbidden magic.

The temple interior was filled with research materials. It was on par with the Magic Tower’s massive research facilities.

‘It hasn’t been long since she started…’

The old woman wasn’t here last year when Angelus came to this place. At most, she had been conducting this much research in about a year.

“Impressive. Did you do all of this alone?”

“Of course. No one would associate with this old woman. No one in their right mind would research black magic.”

The old woman laughed as if she were insane. Her appearance only piqued my curiosity further.

‘Her abilities are incredible.’

It wasn’t easy to see someone inherit forbidden magic to this extent on their own. The years etched into the old woman’s wrinkles must have been filled with black magic.

[Can we get some information from this hag?]

‘We have to.’

To face the Ominous Star, the more information we had about black magic, the better. Perhaps meeting the old woman was a stroke of luck.

“Where did you learn black magic?”

“Hmm. That’s a difficult question. Would you easily reveal the source of the power within that sword?”

The old woman calmly shook her head. It wasn’t an unexpected reaction. I didn’t think she would easily reveal the source of forbidden magic.

“Hmm. Is that so?”

I observed the old woman’s expression while holding the remaining three black stones that hadn’t been destroyed.

The old woman’s eyes flickered for a moment. She seemed to regain her composure, but I wouldn’t miss that opportunity.

“Let’s see… You rushed out because of these stones, right?”

“What?”

“You seemed to be begging me not to destroy them. Are they valuable black magic materials?”

“Not really. They’re common materials. Do as you please.”

The old woman tried to maintain a blank expression.

“Is that how it’s going to be? Then let’s get rid of them one by one. Angelus, can you prepare some magic?”

“As you wish.”

Rumble…

Angelus immediately summoned a blazing sand spear.

“What should we get rid of first? This one?”

I handed the first stone to Angelus.

Sizzle!

Angelus destroyed the stone immediately, but the old woman still showed no reaction.

“Hmph. I told you they were common materials. I don’t care at all. It’s no use.”

I barely listened to the old woman’s grumbling and picked out the next stone.

“Next… Should we do this one?”

The old woman still showed no change in expression. But her aged eyes flickered again at my next action.

“No. I’ll just get rid of this one first. A dragon heart is much more valuable than yeti hide.”

“Wh-what?”

The words ‘Yeti Hide’ and ‘Dragon Heart’ were written on the remaining two stones.

However, that wasn’t the only reason the old woman was surprised.

“…How did you know that?”

It was because I had read the inscriptions on the stones. The inscriptions on the black stones were in an ancient language.

“That’s none of your business. Destroying the dragon heart will be much more damaging to you, right?”

Just as I was about to hand the stone with the dragon heart inscription to Angelus.

“N-no!”

The old woman finally shouted.

“How did I even get that! Not that! I’ll tell you anything, please!”

In the end, I was the one who wore the smile of victory.

[You knew from the beginning, but you deliberately tried to make her anxious?]

‘Isn’t that the art of conversation?’

I had known the inscriptions on each stone from the start. I was just trying to induce the old woman’s tension by getting rid of them one by one.

“Now you’re willing to talk?”

“Haa. You wretched thing. Is there really such a child as you! You’re as cunning as the heads of the Ominous Star families.”

“What? Ominous Star?”

The old woman let out a small sigh.

“Yes. You said you were curious about the source of my black magic, right?”

When her wrinkled lips parted again, there was an emotion in the old woman’s eyes that was difficult to discern.

“I am from one of the Ominous Star families. I learned black magic from my family.”

The old woman was from one of the Ominous Star families. There was a chance she was lying to intimidate me, but.

‘Ominous Star…’

If she had such a background, it was understandable that she had come into contact with black magic.

I knew better than anyone that black magic was behind the Ominous Star.

“Then did you directly receive black magic from your family?”

“Ha! Of course not. Isn’t this what happened when I was caught secretly practicing?”

The old woman stretched out a long finger and pointed to the right side of her face. Her melted face twitched grotesquely as if forcing a smile.

“I found it so interesting to read the forbidden books in the family’s secret library. In the end, I was discovered and kicked out, barely managing to keep my life intact like this.”

“…I see.”

“Are your questions answered now? Boy.”

I nodded slightly. It was something that could happen if she was from an Ominous Star family.

“Then which is your family?”

“Yes. You’d be curious about that too.”

With that, the old woman covered her face with her hand. When her hand was lowered again.

“My name is Aries.”

The black pupils were dyed red.

“Aries Delema.”