The Rebirth Of The Hero’S Party’S Archmage [EN]: Chapter 235

235

As Elamas turned to ash in the flames within Aki’s arms, a peaceful smile graced his face.

Just like Toureina’s.

That was something I, Rin, should have been able to give. Yet Aki, a complete stranger, gifted Elamas with such peace.

“…….”

Without realizing it, I felt like I was drifting into an unreachable realm, and a bitter smile touched my lips.

“Abubu!”

Aki, holding his younger sister Setsunen, stood up and ran toward us.

Seeing how much he had grown, both mentally and physically, as he held Setsunen, I felt a pang of emotion.

Perhaps it was because we had crossed the boundary between life and death, but the four of us hugged each other and smiled blankly.

Until Aki suddenly said something strange.

“Mommy, Daddy, lovey-dovey?”

“What ‘lovey’?”

“Aki, who taught you that?”

“Never mind.”

“Aruu!”

The atmosphere became a bit awkward for a moment. Miria, looking back at the city, shuddered.

“Even though Elamas died, the fog hasn’t disappeared.”

She pushed off the ground with the base of her staff and stood up.

“I thought this would happen. The ancient primitives don’t move without necromancy, but the movements of those who became primitives due to the plague remain the same.”

“What, then how does it end?”

“We can’t end this.”

Only the descendants of Ligwind can quell this situation. Whether those guys are protecting Obin well will be the key to victory or defeat….

* * *

When did I start learning magic? It was a memory from a distant childhood.

Others often don’t remember their infancy, but Valensidice still remembers that day clearly.

Whenever the spring breeze blows, whenever the waves are calm, that memory faintly washes over him.

– Are you drunk again? What is the child supposed to learn from seeing you like this all the time?

– Eeei! How can I stand it without drinking! They treat me like a complete fool!

– Oh my, I can’t live like this. If you just do your job well at the Magic Guild, our whole family would be so happy.

His father was a magician without talent, a laughingstock whenever he went to the academy.

That’s why he always came back drunk whenever he left home for a long time.

Of course, he never laid a hand on them or shouted. He would just complain while his mother prepared the meal.

– Son. Your father is being looked down upon like this. But those guys have completely forgotten about the essence of magic. What is magic?

– ?

– It should act as a ladder for those who are powerless, weak, and haven’t received opportunities, eeeing, tsk tsk tsk…….

Then, his father dropped some documents from his bag.

It was a magic for relieving the people’s suffering, but his father himself couldn’t properly complete the runes and mathematical formulas.

Valensidice, who devoured magic books in his study whenever his father was away, immediately recognized the problem with the magic and revised it all night.

– No, Valen, you, um, huh……?

What kind of expression did his father make when he woke up during the day and saw it……?

– Did I teach you magic?

– I learned it from books. This much is easy.

His father stared blankly at Valensidice before rushing to the kitchen. He grabbed his mother’s hand, who was preparing breakfast, and laughed excitedly.

– He’s a genius, our son is a genius! With our son’s talent, he can surely illuminate this dark world!

Tears welled up in Valensidice’s eyes as he collapsed on the broken road. Memories of days he could no longer grasp…….

“The prince has started playing.”

“It doesn’t seem like it will matter even if he does.”

“There’s no way such an immature performance will regenerate the barrier.”

The legs of a Dawn Brigade member, who was taking a stance to throw a javelin while looking up at the spire, were cut off the next moment.

A vacuum area created by wind magic rotated countless times, creating a cutting force like a blade.

Valensidice’s specialty, wind blade.

“Show some respect, this is the king’s presence…….”

That bastard…….

As soon as the other guys next to the fallen member turned around, cyan arrows pierced their chests at once.

The roots of magic sprouted from the point of impact of the arrow, destroying the target’s heart.

“Valsirendis!”

Soon after, archer Rem ran up with nimble movements.

“Rem…….”

He supported Valensidice, who was struggling to cough up blood while holding the ground with both hands, and helped him stand up.

“How’s the taste of the White Spear Bow’s arrow? Does it wake you up?”

“Yes, definitely…… and my name is Valensidice…….”

“Is that important now?”

The bow of the palace, Serwebon, huh…….

To be able to heal allies from such a distance, it’s definitely an amazing ability.

As Rem took Valensidice up to the roof, a low murmur escaped his lips.

“It’ll be okay even without me now…….”

“Huh? What did you say?”

“It was just a mumble, nothing special…….”

Rem leaned Valensidice against the railing and then wove a magical arrow into the string of the White Spear Bow. As he did, he looked worriedly at the spire.

“It seems like he’s been playing the flute for quite a while, but I don’t hear any sound. Is it going well?”

It’s the heart, Obin.

Don’t forget the teachings Rein gave you.

I don’t even have the right to point that out to you. Because I had forgotten my father’s teachings too.

– When you devise magic, you put your heart into it! You hope that people will be happy with this magic, that they will laugh during droughts, things like that!

– Dad, you don’t know what magic is, do you?

– This guy has no respect for his father! And I told you to call me master?

I used to make fun of my father back then, but that was part of the truth that the old archmage held in his heart…….

‘Father, you were not wrong. The wrong one was your inept disciple. To laugh at you like that.’

A magic circle floated above Valensidice’s palm. It’s not a transcendent magic like the archmage handles.

Just a simple amplification magic.

So that the sound of the prince’s flute can spread throughout the city, and so that he can hear it too.

“……?”

At the top of the spire, Obin, who had been playing the Cheonpasikjeok [a legendary Korean flute] until he was out of breath, stopped playing, sensing a strange tone.

Why doesn’t it reach?

Why isn’t there any change?

Pipi and Bart are buying time for me. Many people are dying. I have to hurry, I have to hurry…….

‘There’s no need to rush.’

Then, countless water droplets bubbled up around him.

‘Calmly, with heart.’

The magic imbued with the power of amplification.

That magic was as if someone had placed a hand on Obin’s shoulder and whispered to him. Master Valensidice, and his mother.

Blood began to flow through his stiff fingers. The tension began to leave his rigid body.

For a moment, Rein Ludwig’s face flashed before his eyes.

I probably won’t become such a great magician. But my mother didn’t tell me to become such a magician either.

‘How did Mother play this song?’

The melody that his mother always whistled in bed, the performance she gave on this spire even when there were no special events.

The sound of those memories, where his mother played the accompaniment, Obira clapped to the rhythm, and made him play, as if drawing that past scene on a canvas, as if transferring the old sound to another place.

“……?”

“……?”

“……?”

Like ripples spreading across a calm surface, a new wave rises in a world of chaos.

Everyone’s movements began to stop one by one. The movements of those holding spears and swords, and those who had become madmen from the primitive curse.

One by one, in the beautiful melody that bubbled and spread throughout the palace like soap bubbles, though they shouldn’t be visible.

There was a certain sound that danced in everyone’s memories, like a lullaby from childhood.

The instrument that embodied the tone of Tersia, who remembered the dead and sang with heavenly melodies, responded to the young prince’s heart.

Tears welled up in the eyes of Ashka, the gatekeeper, who looked up at the spire.

Because the figure of the young prince, who was scorned by everyone, overlapped with the figure of the queen.

“What is this performance…….”

Rem, who was captivated by the sound, not even realizing that the arrow placed on the White Spear Bow was scattering, muttered like that.

‘Sound transcends even language and conveys the heart.’

If so.

If magic contains the heart.

In fact, sound magic might be a discipline that penetrates the truth of that magic.

‘I…….’

Valensidice, who was staring blankly at the spire, covered his face with his right hand and lowered his head.

He lived his whole life in self-reproach.

In the guilt of killing his parents and teacher with his own hands.

‘The reason I was able to escape the nightmare of the Lanoa Bridge right away was because I had been suffering from that nightmare my whole life, so I quickly recognized it as a nightmare…….’

In fact, my life was like wandering.

I was destined to wander my whole life without knowing the path I should take, and die in ignorance.

– Take a disciple.

He’s not a formal teacher, and we haven’t built a proper master-disciple relationship, but while guiding Obin, I vaguely understood my father’s heart.

That song, that sound, is Obin’s sound of memories, but it’s not Obin’s sound.

It doesn’t bring to mind the scene that Obin is drawing in his heart, but the memories that the listener longed for unfold in the depths of their heart.

– You will meet a friend. How wide is this world. So wait for the time.

Those who know the inside story of Valensidice’s life probably won’t feel anything but contempt.

But that guy was different.

He gave me the answer to my life.

Just like my father said back then, I met a friend somewhere in this wide world.

‘The great magician who saved the world with that noble power is now saving my soul…….’

Each sound begins to emit light. Warmth dwells in the sound. It emits color.

The sound draws.

It draws a watercolor painting of memories in the hearts of people who have turned into blank sheets of paper. It grabs and re-establishes the heart that has been separated from the body.

– Father, shouldn’t I learn combat magic to leave my name in posterity like Rin?

– Hmm, certainly great magicians like Rin save the world, but do you really need to become such a person, you bastard?

– Then?

The darkness in my heart melts away.

The primitive shackles that imprisoned the soul are broken one by one, and people begin to emerge from their crumbling bodies.

Those who were inside the castle, and those who were outside the castle.

Those who had escaped the plague were unconscious, but their faces were wet with tears.

As darkness could not overcome the light, the vortex of vengeful spirits writhed and scattered in the light of that sound.

“Is Ligwind’s barrier regenerating?”

Bart’s face lit up as he watched the progress of the situation.

‘The cracks in the earth are healing and the pillars of light from the primitive kingdom are disappearing.’

On top of that…… the movements of the Dawn Brigade members who had been persistently attacking stopped at once. As if the power had been cut off.

And one by one, they fell to the ground, and their bodies began to scatter into dark blue haze.

‘The fact that that’s possible means.’

Rein and Miria must have won too.

Hoo…….

Even as Bart took a breath and slung the Dragon Bone Spear over his shoulder, the performance continued.

– It’s enough to be a magician who can help one person, one person’s heart. You become such a magician, Valen.

You don’t have to leave your name in history books.

Instead, become a person who can leave your name and smile in the hearts of the people around you.

– That is the battle of life that you will have to live from now on.

Water droplets flowed from Valensidice’s right hand, which covered his face, and fell to the floor.

This is farewell to the teacher.

The smile and request of the teacher that I had forgotten in shock.

“Yes, Father…….”

That day, the plague of wandering souls that covered the Solond Kingdom was completely ended the moment the young prince took the flute from his lips.

In the breeze that brushed past Obin’s cheeks, it seemed like he smelled his mother’s scent…….

Obin, looking at the source of that scent, the direction where there could be no entity, wore a smile where sadness and joy coexisted.

“Mother, it’s all over now.”