The Story Of The Second Son Of The Baron Family [EN]: Chapter 45

The journey from the Tera Barrier to the capital, and from the capital to the Magic Tower, was uneventful. Even before arriving in the capital, I was strictly escorted by people sent by the Magic Tower Lord and taken directly to the Magic Tower. Similarly, meeting the Magic Tower Lord was not difficult. He was the first person I met upon arriving in the capital.

“I greet the Magic Tower Lord.”

“So, you’ll accept my offer?”

*Do Duke Jik and the Magic Tower Lord become impatient once they reach a certain level, or is it that impatient people reach that level?* I was about to sigh at the Magic Tower Lord, who got straight to the point before I even sat down, but I nodded.

“Yes. Of course, that’s assuming the offer you made then is still valid. Seeing as I’ve come all the way here, it doesn’t seem like the opportunity has passed.”

“You give me your unique magic, and I give you teachings as a high-level mage. Has anything changed since then?”

“No.”

“Good. From now on, you are my, Gadel’s, first disciple, and I swear on my magic to teach you to the best of my ability as your master. In return, you must tell me about your unique magic without the slightest addition or subtraction.”

“Yes. I swear on my magic that there will be not the slightest addition or subtraction.”

The Oath of Magic.

It sounds grand, but it wasn’t the kind of oath that had direct consequences if broken. Of course, you’d have to be prepared to lose your honor if the truth came out. But since mages are trustworthy when it comes to magic, these words were closer to a declaration of doing their best for each other.

“I will give you six hours of instruction a day. And you will explain your magic to me for one hour. You are free to sleep or do personal training for the rest of the time. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Master.”

I could tell from my short conversation with my master that even the greatest mage in the Empire—no, the world—hadn’t been able to properly grasp the Engraving, even after nearly two years. *Just what are you, really?*

“Disciple.”

He called me disciple after hearing the title of master. With this, a new relationship of master and disciple was formed between me and the Tower Lord.

“You rejected my offer at our first meeting. What made you change your mind now?”

“…Do I have to say?”

“You don’t have to. But as your master, if I know why you need my help, I can tailor my teachings a little more specifically.”

“I have someone to take revenge on. It’s something I must do to sleep soundly, or at least to be proud of myself, even if it means risking everything.”

#

Gadel looked at Renil, who had spoken of revenge, and he was quite surprised. At their first meeting, his first impression of Renil was no different from looking at a greenhorn [a naive or inexperienced person]. He was quite determined, but his eyes held clumsy hope, and he was moving forward as if he was enjoying himself toward a goal that he didn’t know if he could catch.

*But now…he’s shed his skin.*

His eyes were filled with a strong determination to achieve his goal, and beneath that, there was despair and sorrow crushed by the determination. At least he had grown in experience and resolve to the point where he could no longer be called a greenhorn. One could not judge which was better as a person.

However, the latter was more suitable if one wanted to grow quickly. In fact, it might be natural for the conditions for rapid growth to include a reason to grow rapidly. Motivation was the beginning of everything.

“Then there’s no reason to drag it out. Lessons start today.”

“That’s what I wanted.”

“Before that, let’s see your skills. The content I teach will vary depending on your level. What are you touching now [What magic are you currently using]?”

And it didn’t take long for Gadel’s eyes to widen slightly. It wasn’t difficult for him to know what kind of magic Renil was going to show just from the preparation process to show his level. And that magic was slightly beyond his expectations.

Renil’s feet lifted off the ground and began to rise. If that was all, there was no reason to be surprised. If it was just to make the body float, the three-circle Fly spell was enough. It was not strange for Renil, who was known to be a 4-circle mage, to handle Fly freely.

But the reason Gadel’s eyes widened slightly was that Renil’s body was not just floating. That meant that the magic Renil was casting was not Fly.

Renil moved freely in a slightly floating state. He moved his body slowly and quickly, and even rotated his body once. Soon, a small, faint whirlwind could be seen from his feet hanging upside down in the air. Ether Wing. It was a flight magic that a 5-circle mage could perform.

*5-circle…*

From his point of view, it was not a great level. For him, 5-circle was just a passing point. But that was only because the standard was set at Gadel, a 7-circle mage, not because the level was low. It was something that could be understood when considering that even he had reached 5-circle near his mid-twenties.

“Twenty? Twenty-one?”

“It hasn’t been long since I created the circle [achieved that level of magic].”

“Twenty-one and 5-circle, I never thought I would think that my talent is inferior to someone, but you make me create one surprise every time I meet you.”

Gadel threw the thoughts he had had until now into the trash. The mage in front of him was not just another mage, but perhaps a mage with qualities that were not at all inferior to him. If the disciple’s qualities were outstanding, the way of teaching as a master had to be different from the ordinary.

“Good. You must also be the type of genius, so I don’t have to rack my brains to explain it easily. Then where should I start?”

Gadel’s head began to spin rapidly.

#

The Magic Tower Lord has taken a disciple.

This news swept through the capital quickly. More precisely, the nobles of the capital. The common people were not interested in such news. Of course, it was a rumor worth spreading quickly, but the rumor spread much faster because there were two reasons.

First of all, the nobles of the capital were always bored and always thirsty for new news. Of those who left their territories and settled in the capital, a small number of people were still devoted to training, but the only thing the rest of the people could do was to hold parties and have tea time every day, eating, drinking, and talking. So they had no choice but to wait for new news.

Secondly, it was because the Magic Tower Lord himself had taken a disciple, which was the content of the rumor itself. The problem was that it was not just any disciple, but the first disciple. It had been a little over ten years since Gadel took over the position of Magic Tower Lord from the previous Magic Tower Lord, so the number of people who had tried to put himself or one of his relatives as his disciple during that time was countless.

Nevertheless, the fact that the Magic Tower Lord, who had not made a single disciple, had taken a disciple was enough to make the Magic Tower and the capital noisy.

“Who the hell is it?”

“Renil Dragnil? Where is that family located?”

“Ah, that young man from then!”

And it was not difficult to realize that the identity of the disciple was Renil, the one who had held a demonstration in front of them and the Emperor about two years ago. In the first place, the only people who could enter the Magic Tower Lord’s laboratory were the Magic Tower Lord and the disciple.

*Is it the birth of a new noble family?*

*A nobleman with nothing special has been blessed with a son.*

*What should I do? Should I make a connection in advance?*

It was natural for them to think this way. The Magic Tower Lord, who had not taken a disciple until now, had taken his first disciple. What does this mean? They had no choice but to think that he had finally decided to raise a successor. In reality, the two had only traded what they needed from each other, but no matter what the internal circumstances were, the perspective from the outside could not help but be so.

In particular, such reactions were more pronounced among nobles with weak power. Considering that the reason why nobles left their territories and came to the capital was to quickly respond to the shift in power, it was natural.

In order to make the family more prosperous and to gain even a little more power, it was basic to get in line with those who held more power and those who would hold it.

In that sense, Renil, who was a promising candidate for the next Magic Tower Lord in an instant, had no special connections, and was not even married, was a coveted jewel to them. They were drooling over each other, watching only to see who would reach out first. But even reaching out was not an easy task.

Renil, who had come to the capital, spent most of his time taking classes with Gadel inside the Magic Tower or training alone. Except for sending letters to his colleagues and sending letters to his hometown on the first day he met Gadel, he had not gone outside the Magic Tower. In the end, only outsiders could be anxious.

#

What I felt after taking classes with the Magic Tower Lord for a few weeks was that the Magic Tower Lord could never be a good teacher. I know. Just like the saying that a great player cannot be a great coach, knowing a lot does not mean being able to teach well.

Gadel gave difficult teachings as if to prove that he was a genius, and even if there was something I didn’t understand, he tended to move on to the senses rather than explaining it in detail in theory.

Perhaps if I had accepted the Magic Tower Lord’s offer at the time of the demonstration, my growth would have been more stagnant than it is now. Now that my sense of magic has increased, I can understand what he means by sense with my body rather than my head, but if it were me at that time, I would have wasted time and had no results.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that I’m a good teacher either. I couldn’t tell Gadel more than just a sense either.

“There is nothing that can be called research data.”

“Nothing?”

When Gadel’s first class was over and it was my turn, I couldn’t hide my embarrassment. That’s because, like I said, there was nothing that could be called research data. It wasn’t that there was nothing at all, but those were only about how to use it, not research on how to use it.

“I knew it, I thought something was strange. No matter how much you started the research first, there’s no way I wouldn’t have made any progress even though I researched with the results, there’s no way I couldn’t narrow the gap even though I worked so hard.”

“I don’t know why I can use this magic either. I just became able to use it freely based on what I experienced in my dreams, and I don’t have any information that I can teach to others.”

“That’s enough. I was expecting it to some extent, so it’s enough just to be able to research in various ways.”

Fortunately, he didn’t break the contract with this as an excuse. It was fortunate for me, and it may have seemed that it didn’t matter much to the Magic Tower Lord, as he had gained more data for his sluggish research. As a result, it was important that the master-disciple relationship, which was made through a deal, was not broken and continued.

While I was focusing on training like that, time flew by, and someone came to find me.

“I’m so glad you’re safe.”

“Brother!”

Father, mother, older brother, and younger sister. The whole family came up to the capital to see me.