The Rebirth Of The Hero’S Party’S Archmage [EN]: Chapter 250

250

“Why didn’t you reveal it to the world, even though you followed Emit’s path and reached the Truth?”

Karendein asked.

The Truth? Reached the Truth?

Ryuken Ludwig reached the Truth? That can’t be. Ryuken is recorded as a Great Mage, not a Sage.

“Father of Truth, what reason could there be? It is because this sinful being was not worthy.”

“Worthy, you say. Do you still hold the disciple’s affairs in your heart?”

“That child taught me the Truth, but I failed to guide that child on the right path, so even now, my heart aches as if it’s breaking.”

It’s hard to follow the flow of the story.

Taught the Truth, so does that mean Zernique had already reached the Truth?

‘Was that power, which freely manipulated the elements, a power born from the Truth?’

I want to hear it too.

I want to know about that Truth too.

“If your heart is uneasy, unburden yourself before you go. Just having someone listen to your story can comfort a person’s heart.”

* * *

“Master.”

The reunion of master and disciple was quieter than expected.

Perhaps it’s because after living for so long, one learns how to control emotions.

“Shirin.”

Fride smiled gently, seeing her disciple approaching with the same innocent smile she had in her girlhood.

“You’ve aged quite a bit.”

“Master, you’ve become younger.”

“There’s a management secret to it.”

In her later years, Fride stayed in the sacred library of the Red City, [a renowned repository of arcane knowledge], exploring the path of transcendence.

It was to reach limited immortality, and Shirin was an orphaned girl she took in as a disciple during that research.

Besides Shirin, there were two other older students, but Shirin was the most favored. Fride liked pure children like Shirin.

The spell that Fride completed in the Holy City was only half successful. She couldn’t become a complete dragon.

That’s why Fride entrusted that power to her disciples and left for [a distant and dangerous region].

– If this fire is lit, know that I am alive. If it goes out, my life is over.

Fride entrusted the Soul Fire to Shirin and left, and it had been burning dazzlingly for 200 years.

– If something happens that you cannot handle, or if Lynn comes to find me here, call me through this fire.

The moment both conditions were met, Shirin called Fride… and now they have met again like this.

“Will you teach me a little? Can you see the wrinkles on my cheeks?”

Shirin asked, kneeling neatly next to Fride.

A magic circle composed of dragon words surrounded Zernique’s body. It was controlling the speed at which the dragon’s flames burned his body.

The most favored disciple, who immediately understood what her master was doing and what she needed to do to maintain it, said.

“I’ll take care of this, Master. I’ve never been good at fighting. I can’t use dragon transformation spells like my sisters either.”

Fride completely trusted Shirin’s talent.

Without even asking the perfunctory question of whether she could do it, she got up.

A smile on her face as she looked at her soulmate, who had been rubbing her head against her incessantly since earlier.

“Then Pipi, shall we dance together for the first time in a while?”

“Pipi, Pipi, Pipi, Pipi Dance Yeah.”

“Ah, Master. This.”

Shirin held out a scroll that she had been hanging on her waist.

The Poem of Declaration and the Poem of Misunderstanding, poems that were known to have disappeared when Fride went missing. They would be necessary to engage in battle.

Fride looked down at them with a somewhat longing expression and surprisingly shook her head lightly.

“You brat, this master doesn’t need things like that anymore.”

* * *

“I am a sinful person, Father of Truth.”

Ryuken knelt politely next to Karendein and began to tell the story of his life.

“As you know, in my youth, I used magic only for my own selfish desires and looked down on the lowly and humble.”

Although the Ludwig family was not a family of magic at the time, Ryuken was born of noble lineage.

“Perhaps feeling sorry for me, you sent me that child. The day I went deep into the mountains of the Eternal Mountain Range for training, I found that child.”

He was a boy who looked to be about five years old at best, and when asked what happened to his parents, he replied that they had been attacked and killed by magical beasts.

How could he understand death and speak so fluently at such a young age?

He was digging the ground with his small hands. His hands were covered in blisters, and his fingernails were broken and falling out, but he continued.

It was to bury his rotting parents.

– Do you know magic?

– …….

– Because your brain is ignorant, you are trying to solve such things with your hands. If you can learn what I teach, try to learn it.

Surprisingly, the boy mastered the four arithmetic operations in one day, and the next day he even understood the principles of equations.

Truly a natural talent, and not only talent, but this child had something that Ryuken did not have.

Despite being at an age where he should sleep a lot, the child stayed up all night learning mathematics, and when asked why, he replied like this.

– I feel sorry for my parents rotting on the ground. They won’t be able to sleep comfortably.

That was the heart.

The heart that puts into magic, the heart that pities, the heart that the gods possessed.

When leaving that mountain, Ryuken decided to take the boy as his disciple. He gave him the name Zernique. It meant ‘Enlightenment’.

Zernique was a child full of curiosity and inquisitiveness, and he also talked a lot, so he liked to discuss mathematics with Ryuken all night long.

“There were more days when I learned more than I taught. I learned not mathematics, but this world.”

Zernique’s growth was in itself a marvel, and the heart and wisdom that the child possessed represented the possibilities of this world.

In the days with that child, I could know what happiness was.

I vaguely came to know the heart of the gods when they created this world.

“I gradually came to understand what you were trying to teach us by creating the theory of mathematics.”

After more than ten years, Zernique reached the level of a Great Mage like Ryuken.

He possessed the power to freely manipulate the eight attributes, truly like the Black Sun, Lord Karendein.

Even before that, the child was Ryuken’s pride and a treasure that could not be exchanged for anything in this world.

– Why doesn’t Master ascend to the position of Sage? I cannot accept that someone like me is on the same level as Master.

The child found it strange that Ryuken could not cross the threshold of the Sage.

From some point on, he seemed to feel guilty that Ryuken was stuck at the level of a Great Mage because he could not pursue his own exploration while teaching him.

– Master, I wish to leave your side for a while. I will return after realizing the Truth.

Gradually, his heart darkened and he became impatient with everything, and one day Zernique left a short letter and left.

“After that child left, I had plenty of time to indulge in longing contemplation. As you know, it was at that moment that I realized the Truth.”

Lein’s Adam’s apple swallowed dryly.

What is it? What is it?

I want to know. What is the Truth?

Ryuken soon spoke about the Truth, and while Lein blankly pondered that enlightenment, he began the story of lamentation.

“But the day I could tell that enlightenment to that child never came.”

The Water Dragon Yeriserika said that Zernique had become obsessed with the Abyss, harming hundreds of lives and offering them as sacrifices to the Old Kings.

He had made a contract with the Abyss to gain wisdom, and his soul had become corrupted.

The authority he received from the kings was so great that three Blue True Dragons had already died.

Upon hearing that news, Ryuken sat alone all day. He sat blankly until his old friend Osarius came to find him.

– It’s all my fault. I should have expressed it in words. I am no longer bound by the Truth, and the rank of Mage is not very important.

Now, if I could just live, live for a long time, and see you have children and see you ascend to the Truth, that would be enough.

I should have always said that, but seeing me always attached to exploration, that child became burdened with guilt and became like that.

– The Water Dragon conveyed Lord Karendein’s will. He said that you have already realized the Truth, and to open this treasure of wisdom and know it for sure.

The Treasure of Wisdom was the blessing of the World Tree that allows one to know the knowledge that is most needed at that moment.

It was said to have the power to clearly complete the vaguely formed wisdom.

Ryuken did not use that treasure to know the Truth. What he wanted at that time was the power to give Zernique peace…

The power to return all the magic of his disciple, who had reached the pinnacle of magic through the Abyss, to nothingness and give him time to talk slowly.

That desperate wish was what manifested as Bell Curias.

Not long after embarking on a journey with Osarius, he was able to meet Zernique.

Only three years had passed, but the disciple had become a completely different person.

The once lively personality had simply turned into an arrogant and haughty one.

The magical power itself, which had an innocent texture, was deeply stained with the stench of blood.

– Ah, Master. So you came. I was going to visit you anyway, but the dragons kept bothering me, so I was a little late, hahaha.

Zernique said that there was no need to know the Truth that the [entities from beyond reality] had messed up.

The knowledge of the Old Kings was the immutable Truth, and he would teach that power, so he told Ryuken to reign as the absolute ruler of this world.

He also said that he would do his best to help with that. The gods never gave him wisdom, no matter how much he sought and prayed.

– Do you know what you’ve done? You killed people! The dragon who protects this world, and the heart of the master who cherished you so much!

When Osarius scolded him, Zernique used magic without hesitation, telling him to shut his mouth.

The destructive power and speed were indescribable, as the essence of black magic was added to the intellect that freely manipulated the eight original runes.

With one spell, providence collapsed and the earth and sky were overturned. Tears fell from Ryuken’s eyes, who had been unable to say anything since the reunion.

– It’s all my fault.

At that moment, the ripples of pure blood covered this world, and the power of Bell Curias interfered with providence.

‘That is.’

Zernique blinked in disbelief, his magic and half of his body blown away to another world in an instant.

‘The true power of Bell Curias…?’

He began to spew curses, saying that Ryuken had harmed him and that he had not taught him even though he had such power.

‘He blew away the dimension, the dimension itself. Did he combine it with space-time magic? What a terrifying power?’

Even if he tried to say something, no conversation could take place, buried in those curses.

The Abyss had already violated not only his soul but also his body.

The innocent and lovely boy who dug the ground himself because he felt sorry for his dead parents was nowhere to be found.

To protect the heart of that old disciple was to destroy the body of this disciple right now.

“The day I stained my hands with the blood of my disciple, the Truth was no different from having already left my side. I am a sinner.”

“……..”

“Before I died, that is, right before my soul came here, Zernique came to find me. It seemed like he had been resurrected by the power of the Abyss.”

At that time, Ryuken could not harm Zernique.

Ryuken, who had lived his whole life in deep sorrow, could not harm his disciple, who appeared in his youthful form, twice.

“I failed to give him the right teachings, so I should have given him peace this time, but I didn’t accomplish anything properly.”

“……..”

“That child’s soul will continue to be trapped in the Abyss and groan in pain, and through that child, many people in the world will be caught up in pain. I am a sinful person.”

At first, I just wanted to get information about the Truth, but now, only the pain of empathy deeply pierced Lein’s heart.

I could understand Ryuken’s heart.

I could recognize Ryuken’s sadness.

My hatred or resentment towards Zernique had not dulled, but at this moment, I sympathized with Ryuken’s pain.

Now I know. Why only a sad heart flowed so desperately whenever I read Ryuken’s memories.

“I have failed as well.”

Just as silence seemed to flow for a moment, Lord Karendein said that.

“I intend to do something on a certain day that I cannot confirm now. I will use your descendants for that work. I promise. I will have that child give your child peace.”

“……?”

“That is my apology for my failure and the only comfort I can give you.”

Ryuken, who had been hanging his head and pouring out his feelings, raised his face for a moment, then dropped water droplets from his eyes and answered in a trembling voice.

“Thank you.”

As if that was the only regret in his life, Ryuken’s form became blurred and soon scattered into light particles and disappeared.

Because that tear-stained expression was so, so familiar, Lein lowered his head sadly.

Because when he heard that Tureina had entered the soul of Mirngardia, he was shedding tears like that.

For a very brief moment, he closed his eyes and prayed with his hands together.

I hope that at this moment a thousand years ago, Ryuken received the same comfort of heart that I felt back then.

Until Karendein looked straight at Lein and said this.

“Do you understand now?”