Chapter 60

In my memory, the woman pursed her lips in a prim way.

“What are you doing?”

She was the First Mage Sen Sorti.

She was also the Great Witch Beluchian Pollinglight and the worshiped Last Magician.

Above all, she was my only master.

“I even told you what to say. Should I, your master, speak for you too?”

“Ah, really……”

“Now, hurry!”

I, Shion Pollinglight, was not a silent man, but when pushed like this, I couldn't help but feel embarrassed.

Still, she had prepared a gift for her disciple.

I forced a smile and held out my hand.

“…What gift have you prepared for your disciple, Master?”

“Hmm……”

The Last Magician frowned.

Having seen her up close for a long time, I immediately read the signs.

That was a displeased face.

I grumbled.

“Ah, why? I did as you told me.”

“Now that I've been pushed into it, it's not that enjoyable. It drains my energy.”

The woman put the item she was holding back into her pocket.

“Ask me again in a little while. I want to feel the reward of having prepared a gift too.”

“Honestly, still……”

She was a capricious woman.

So I chuckled.

She was utterly like his master, Beluchian Pollinglight.

Beluchian also smiled back.

Just the two Pollinglights in the whole world.

Still in my memory.

I sighed.

I had sent the Juet Acrobat Troupe away and met Lacrosha.

It seemed I was mentally exhausted.

I touched my chin and opened my mouth.

“By the way, I heard this gift was prepared a thousand years ago and that you've been waiting all along.”

“Ah, Lacrosha? Why do you pity him?”

The woman waved her hand.

“He's a fellow who's been helping me since the Hotus era. He originally liked waiting and seemed to have nothing else to do, so I gave him the task. It's much better than him wandering around and harming people, isn't it?”

“No, not that.”

“How did I know? That you would regress?”

I nodded my head.

Preparing the gift meant she had known everything for a thousand years.

Even my regression and my previous failures.

I couldn't help but ask.

“It's my specialty, Shion.”

The Last Magician gave a faint smile.

“I am a magician. I don't know what I should know, but I know what I shouldn't know.”

I didn't ask any further.

I didn't know what she knew and I didn't want to know.

It was because I had seen what price she was paying.

Knowledge came with a price.

It was terrible, but irreversible.

Realization was always irreversible.

“Still, don't expect too much.”

A whisper.

“Regression is a greater power than you think. The me in your era won't know you. If you meet her, you'll have a hard time persuading her.”

“Her personality is so awful, what can you do?”

“Why don't you just curse?”

I did not refuse.

“I read a Master's novel and it was terribly boring.”

“…You're really cursing. Even though I worked hard on it.”

“You should have written it well, not just worked hard.”

“…Shut up, disciple.”

If she weren't just a thought-form, she would have hung him for three days.

I said it because she was a thought-form.

The woman glared fiercely, and I snickered.

The Great Witch swept back her silver hair and asked again.

“Still, you seem to have obtained Valziart?”

“It wasn't difficult.”

“It is indeed a masterpiece. It will be difficult to use as a child, but it will be very useful in the future.”

I nodded my head.

Sen Sorti had said that Mana Armor Valziart was affected by the user's physique, so the stronger the user, the more power it drew out.

The eleven-year-old Shion had not yet seen the true potential of Valziart.

It would change when he got older.

“By the way, Shion, it's about time……”

Sigh.

The master gave a hint and the disciple sighed.

I opened my mouth in a rather self-important, clearly acted, voice.

“By the way, you prepared a gift, didn't you?”

“Oh my. How did you know?”

The Great Witch covered her mouth like a girl.

It was an uncharacteristic action for her age.

I, Shion Pollinglight, had something I wanted to say, but I swallowed it down once.

Instead, I spoke with a fake smile.

“I am so touched that you would do this much for me. Won't you tell this disciple what you have prepared?”

“You speak very well!”

“Whose disciple am I?”

“That's a lie, though.”

“…Just give it to me already.”

Looking at my sullen face, the Great Witch smiled with her eyes.

She put her hand into her mouth and then, with a crack, pulled out and threw something.

It was a large and sharp tooth, hard to believe it came from her small mouth.

It looked more like that of a giant beast than a human.

“It's my molar.”

I smiled as I accepted the tooth.

I felt a familiar power, and my soul resonated with it.

The seven secrets, which were sleeping deeper than this world in my memory, were rejoicing.

They must have felt the power of the one who had planted them.

“You also knew that the Septem Arcana would close when I regressed?”

“It was a prediction close to certainty. It's hard to say it's entirely your power. How many are open now?”

“Only two.”

“Two?”

Sen Sorti asked again, surprised by the small number.

The first and second Ars were ‘Fantasy Finger’ and ‘The Unclosable Twenty Steps’.

Far from being splendid, they were bland, like a sword with only a hilt.

It was far from enough to reveal the majesty of the Septem Arcana.

“Your mana also seems weak. How many ‘Fantasy Fingers’ do you have?”

“With great effort, twenty-three.”

“You must have had a hard time.”

“Ah, don't even get me started.”

I, Shion Pollinglight, felt something welling up.

It was because, as I reflected, something I needed to clarify came to mind.

“By the way. Why did you send me to the first day of the Succession War! I really suffered a lot!”

“Oh my, did you think I knew what I was doing?”

“…Right?”

My protesting momentum subsided.

“No matter how much you are my master……”

“Actually, I knew. I thought it would be fun.”

It felt as if a crashing sound had occurred.

The sound of oil being poured onto a subsiding fire.

My eyebrows, recalling the hardships during the Succession War, furrowed in anger, and Beluchian waved her hand dismissively.

“It's a joke, Shion.”

The Great Witch's pupils were calm.

A silver universe unfolded within them.

Even if it was just an afterimage, she was the Last Magician.

A member of the Hotus Eight Gods.

A gaze filled with enough tranquility to overwhelm me.

“I sent you back to that time because that time was right.”

“…If that's the case.”

I couldn't help but accept it.

Beluchian Pollinglight was eccentric, but she was my master.

She cherished me enough to give me the Pollinglight surname.

Though her methods of cherishing me were problematic, I knew better than anyone that her intentions were true.

The master winked at her silent disciple.

“Will my gift be helpful?”

“As it happens, the third secret is not far off. With this, it will open in a few days. Even the fourth might open… though it will take some time.”

“That's good. The fourth secret is especially powerful.”

“It's just difficult, but its power is the greatest.”

Seven secrets, seven Ars, Septem Arcana.

Only by opening the third secret could I truly say I had regained even a trace of my hero days.

I smiled and Beluchian did too.

“I've made a few more arrangements. Though I don't know if you'll find them.”

The silver-haired Great Witch stroked her disciple's head.

She was a thought-form.

She would disappear after this encounter.

There was no regret.

Only a slight worry, and a longing.

“Survive and achieve it, our destiny.”

“The Empire will fall.”

I declared.

“Cordis will kneel to the name of Pollinglight.”

“Yes.”

The Great Witch raised her finger.

Then she slowly brought it to her lips.

I did the same.

“But still, be careful.”

They were Pollinglights.

Only they were Pollinglights.

“For the last secret will overturn everything.”

***

I woke up.

I felt something disappear from within me.

It was because the thought-form left behind by my master had dispersed.

Putting aside a slight sense of regret, I got up.

Something was in my hand.

It was the silver dragon's molar, given to me in my memory.

“I gratefully accept your gift, Master.”

As I put the molar in my mouth, it soon melted away.

My entire mouth felt so cold it seemed it would freeze, but I swallowed it all.

A chill swirled and swept through my body.

The seven secrets dwelling in my soul flickered in welcome.

I realized that the third secret was on the verge of opening.

“Master, your sense of aesthetics is terrible and your writing skills are catastrophic.”

I muttered, looking at the Last Magician's statue.

It was beginning to crack.

It must be scattered because it has fulfilled its role.

Just as the thought-form within me had.

The entire temple was like that.

“Your drinking habits are hardly human, and in this era, you must have completely forgotten about me, but……”

I summoned the first secret, ‘Fantasy Finger’.

It protected me from the collapsing walls.

The statue was now losing its features.

“…I am always grateful for your terrible thoughtfulness towards me.”

Power surged.

‘Fantasy Finger’ swirled around me.

The silver dragon's molar contained even greater power than I had thought.

It couldn't compare to the scale I had obtained from Leniar.

As proof, look, the number of ‘Fantasy Fingers’ was already forty-one.

My, Shion Pollinglight's, eyes blazed blue.

“Soon,”

The hero growled.

“It will be the third secret.”

***

‘Even if only the third secret is opened, I can overturn the situation.’

Just a little, just a little more, and I wouldn't need to be chased like this anymore.

It was thanks to my master's gift.

‘If I open the fourth, I can overwhelm even Amethus, though a price will be needed.’

I could open it easily if I had a little time.

I was heading south anyway, so I had plenty of time.

I had also parted ways with the Juet Acrobat Troupe, so I would be alone for a while.

No, perhaps there was an even better way.

‘More importantly, can I get more help from Lacrosha?’

The horned white snake Lacrosha.

The one who had bound him to the Rubeko Valley was the Last Magician's request to wait for Shion Pollinglight.

If he were to try to leave the valley, it might be helpful.

‘If I ride on his back, I'll be five times, no, ten times faster than walking.’

It would draw attention, but the schedule would be drastically shortened.

From my perspective, wanting to cross to the West as soon as possible, it was tempting.

However, I would need to revise my existing plan.

I walked, forming various plans.

From the inside of the cave to the outside.

From the deep place to the bright place.

I felt good.

I had obtained an unexpected gift and it was even very useful, so there was no reason not to feel good.

That's how it was.

“Is it raining……”

At the very end of the cave, just outside the valley.

My steps stopped.

“……”

I heard the sound of rain.

The already damp valley was now sticking tenaciously to my skin with moisture.

And yet, the stench that I couldn't erase permeated the air.

This very familiar scent, which also resonated in my soul, was…….

“…The smell of blood……”

It was metallic and strong.

This metallic, even murky, smell of blood was that of a beast.

Two flames rose in my eyes, and Valziart enveloped me.

“……”

I saw the horned white snake.

I saw its long body, dead and cut into hundreds of pieces.

Its long tongue was sticking out, and its eyes, as large as mine, were wide open, not fully closed.

A man was on the snake's head.

He wiped the snake's blood from his double-edged sword, then, upon seeing me, raised his head.

“You're here now.”

The eyes of the man with the double-edged sword were jade-green.

“I have waited a long time, Your Highness Zionis.”

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