The Rebirth Of The Hero’S Party’S Archmage [EN]: Chapter 1

Reincarnation of a Great Archmage in the Hero’s Party – Episode 1 (1/280)

1. Prologue.

The year I turned thirteen, the Hero came to find me at the Magic Tower. She was a beauty with snow-white hair and golden eyes.

“I heard rumors of a once-in-a-century genius magician, but it’s just a cute little kid?”

I remember silently sorting books at the time.

“Um…?”

“……”

“Hello…?”

It wasn’t that I was ignoring her on purpose, but I had a lot on my mind.

“I’m not a genius, and I’m not a kid. I have a name, it’s Rin.”

A little pity welled up as I answered while placing a book in the bookshelf. Her face lit up, and she followed me around like a puppy for quite a while.

“Liar! You’re a 4-star mage at thirteen? They say there’s no precedent for that in the Empire’s history!”

“……”

“And you’re so short, you’re definitely a kid! What, do you want to be treated like an adult? But it looks like you’re still at the age where someone needs to change your diapers? If you come to our party, I’ll change them for you every day!”

Then she covered her mouth and giggled. So, I opened my palm and calculated a spell.

“Fireball.”

“Eek, sorry, sorry! It was a joke!”

She was a funny woman. For someone like that to be a Hero, the world must be ending. No, it really is the end of the world.

I remember chuckling.

I only smiled slightly, but strangely, she smiled several times brighter than I did.

“Now you’re smiling…?”

That’s when I became interested.

‘What a strange human,’ I thought. I hadn’t been interested in people much before.

“I am Rista Alter Shirpang. A Fake Warrior of the Gwangryong Orthodox Church.”

She said that summer had begun in the current world, and the Abyss had broken out in Antarctica, so she needed my help.

It was the so-called Hero’s Party.

There were two more celebrities.

Kies, the Bow Star, one of the Hwanghasa Samsung [Four Great Pillars] of the Holy Human Empire, and Friede, the Fire Dragon Shrine Maiden from the Dragonkin Republic.

“I don’t want to die.”

“No one wants to die.”

“Are the other two as fun as Rista?”

Rista put her finger to her cheek and seemed to ponder for a moment before giving a strange answer.

“Those two are crazy enough to rival me… but there’s something even more fun.”

“What is it?”

When I showed interest, Rista smiled like a girl telling a secret from her adolescence.

“The world.”

The world.

To me, who had lived in the Magic Tower ever since being picked up from the slums by the Dean, that word resonated strangely.

That’s how I joined the party.

Kies was a mute archer whose accuracy dropped to almost zero if he didn’t drink alcohol, and Friede was a shrine maiden who was a heavy smoker and smoked whenever she had the chance.

“You’re supposed to be a Fire Dragon Shrine Maiden, you should be able to breathe fire.”

She would blow smoke in my face and cackle like a madwoman. Still, their skills were undeniable, and we fought well.

Five years, we fought for five years.

Throughout the journey, Rista would always joke with me.

“Rin, you absolutely can’t fall for me, okay?”

“Rin, wouldn’t you like to go on a trip with me when this is all over?”

“I’m worried that Rin is too innocent and might get tricked by other women later.”

And so, five years…

Now, on the eve of the final battle, I am dying, consumed by a dark poison that erodes the soul.

My remaining lifespan is… not much.

“Rin, wake up, Rin! Please… Friede, what are you doing!”

“Rista, the poison is too strong.”

Friede shed tears.

“Even I can’t neutralize it… this is… you might die…”

“I’m not dying, who’s dying!”

“I… I don’t want to die…”

“I know, I won’t let you die. Just hold on a little longer.”

Coughing up blood, I lifted my shirt with my hand, which was turning black, and showed my chest.

主濾小計袋反 [Untranslatable magical inscription].

The main inscription of the immortality magic that I had compiled over four years of research was engraved around my heart.

“No… so, I made… a spell… before…”

It was a spell to completely freeze the body, enter a forced hibernation state, and then completely heal the body through healing amplification and holy incantations.

If my calculations were correct.

Of course, I don’t know how long it will take. I might be in hibernation for the rest of my life. But isn’t this the only option?

“I’ll be back… so you have to win…”

Now, only a fleeting moment of life remains.

Before it’s too late, I activated the magic, and my body began to be covered in ice, starting from my toes.

Rista, her face covered in tears, grabbed my hand tightly.

“You promised, Rin. We’ll meet again. You promised to come back, right?”

Rista was pretty when she smiled. But now that I see her crying, she seems even prettier.

“Then together, the four of us together… let’s go see the world. Okay…? I’ll be waiting by your side until you wake up.”

Ice, the chill of death, gradually climbs up my body. Shin, thigh, pelvis, back, neck….

I smiled weakly.

Like when I first met Rista at the Magic Tower.

“Yeah, I promise.”

And consciousness fell into the cold. A sense of floating and emptiness, as if sinking into a lukewarm swamp….

A strange attachment to death remained.

In the Empire’s grand 7-Star magic system, I wanted to see the end of that truth. Traveling this big and wide world with my party members….

Darkness.

Darkness.

Darkness.

Darkness.

Just when I was about to get used to floundering in the darkness, my eyelids suddenly lifted.

Warm sunlight.

And a refreshing spring breeze.

The energies of life gently caressing my whole body.

“Rain, are you okay?”

I blinked blankly, and my mother grabbed my shoulder. A sense of incongruity arose from the thought that instinctively flashed through my mind.

Mother?

Did I have a mother…?

I was an orphan?

The golden plaza dazzlingly dyed the scene. The southern heat that seemed to burn the whole body and the squelching cries of the Abyss were not heard.

Where is this…?

Deep in my mind, the memories of Rin, who died at eighteen, and the memories of Rain, who was nine, were mixed up in confusion.

“This is….”

“It’s the Hero’s Plaza of the Papal State. The statue here was erected to commemorate Rista’s party. Why, don’t you like it?”

I quietly looked up at the statue that had been weathered over eons. They were all familiar faces.

The Hero, Rista.

The Archer, Kies.

The Shrine Maiden, Friede.

And me… Rin.

From the depths of my heart, a pain defined as sorrow welled up. On the pedestal, an epitaph was solemnly engraved, telling the story of the long flow of time.

[Rista: 1082 ~ 1116]

[Kies: 1076 ~ 1154]

[Friede: 1079 ~ 1168]

[Rin: 1090 ~ 1107]

They’re all dead…?

Rista’s death was understandable, since the lifespan of a Fake Warrior whose strength was augmented by human modification was originally short.

I tried to brush it off.

“Mother, what year is it now?”

“Why are you suddenly being so formal, dear? Don’t do that, it scares me.”

“What year is it?”

“It’s Tersia Year 1418.”

1418…?

To explain quickly, it seemed that I had awakened again in an era roughly 300 years away from the era in which Rin lived.

Whether I was reborn or had memories overlaid….

It felt like an indescribable nightmare. An era 300 years away from Rista’s laughter, Kies’ drunken ramblings, and Friede’s cigarette smoke.

“Did we win?”

It was a meaningless question.

We must have won, so the statue was erected, so this peaceful sky is unfolding.

“Do you see that tower of the Papal State? It is said that the body of the Great Magician Rin is still there. Completely frozen and in the same form as before.”

“Is that so?”

“And it is said that Lady Rista stayed by her side until the day she died. Isn’t that a truly beautiful and sad relationship?”

It was funny.

To me, the final battle was just a moment ago, but it’s like telling a legend from hundreds of years ago.

“Why are you laughing? It’s a sad story.”

“It’s just… I’m happy that she really kept her promise.”

I just promised to do so, holding my right hand tightly, and the feeling is still vivid….

“Rain?”

My mother tilted her head as if she didn’t understand what I was saying.

“But someone didn’t keep their promise.”

Muttering as if spitting it out, I stroked the epitaph on the pedestal, and streams of hot water flowed down both cheeks. Quietly, weakly.

“I couldn’t keep it….”

* * *

I became a historically great figure in how the three people recorded me.

Elemental Master.

A master of multiple calculations.

I received a huge reward and a plaque of appreciation from the Emperor of the Holy Human Empire, and several Magic Towers and Magic Families described me as a saint.

It was a trivial nickname, the 11th Great Magician.

During the long period of 300 years, only one other Great Magician reached the 5-Star level after me, and the position is currently vacant.

‘Now really, nothing is left.’

I think blankly.

All that’s left for me is magic.

The memories of traveling to many places, and the laughter of my companions who shone brilliantly in those memories, have become legends of old tales, not memories.

Rista used to tell me that memories are memories when they can be shared with someone.

Therefore, the memories I have are not memories.

Until the day I die.

It must be an unanswered echo that I have to embrace and move forward with.

‘I remember regretting not achieving the magic before I died.’

The Holy Human Empire has systematized the vast scale of magic into the ‘Imperial 7-Star Magic System.’

1-Star: Normal Magician, Bandoran.

2-Star: Intermediate Magician, Limites.

3-Star: Advanced Magician, Atlas.

4-Star: Supreme Magician, Glados.

5-Star: Great Magician, Aquizard.

What I reached was the realm of 5-Star, and from 6-Star onwards, they are called Sages, the cutting edge of truth that only two people in the Empire’s history have reached.

‘If I hadn’t followed Rista, I might have reached the ranks of 6-Star before I died of old age.’

But I would have regretted it for sure.

Even if I could turn back time, I would follow her and go on a journey several times.

‘But now Rista is gone….’

Then let’s fulfill the dreams I couldn’t fulfill in my previous life in this life.

‘In this life, I will see the truth.’

It is said that those who reach the end of magic, the truth, can see through all aspects of the world.

– I hope this world is full of laughter.

Rista said that.

Let’s see if the world we desperately protected together is really in that state now, with the eyes of truth.

Therefore, let’s do our best.

Let’s whip myself so that I can forget this piercing sense of sorrow and emptiness.

Before leaving the plaza.

I looked up at the statue one last time, then slowly closed my eyes and recalled the unanswered echo.

– Rin, this way! Look at these flowers!

Rista.

And Friede.

– For a cute little kid like Rin, it’s too romantic a flower garden.

Kies, who couldn’t speak and always expressed his feelings by stroking my head.

– It’s better to read another magic book than to look at this. What’s so good about this….

And me, who was always complaining.

I was always acting like that, but in fact, you know, I enjoyed the trip with you so much.

“Rista, Kies, Friede.”

I quietly savored their names, prayed that my voice would reach their souls, and then said my last farewell.

“Now, goodbye….”

The dead only dwell in the past.

The living cannot go against the flow of time, so they must move forward into the future.

That’s how I persuaded my feet, which wouldn’t fall.

My second life began like that.