EP.204 Land of Ashes (4)
I have never really been greedy for clothes.
Was it because I grew up in a town that could be called rural, with parents who ran a small library? The areas I was interested in were generally limited to knowledge.
Even during the days of the next gray magic tower lord.
Even when I was a wise man in the warrior party, I wasn’t very greedy about clothes. I just thought that it was enough for clothes to have good performance.
Was that why?
“Did you buy clothes again?”
“Are you guys really crazy? Refund me before I rip it to shreds. I’m really tearing up. “He said he was going to tear it up.”
I could never understand Sarah and Remia. It wasn’t once or twice that I raised my voice when I saw that I wasted my budget every time I bought clothes.
‘···Of course, it was like that.’
I lowered my gaze without saying a word.
I looked at my slightly raised arm.
Palak.
The sleeves are puffy. The movement of the sleeves, drawing flowing curves, was very beautiful. Constellations embroidered on white decorated the ends of the sleeves.
Bingle.
It’s the same even if you look back from your seat.
Robes flutter in the wind that blows across the wilderness. When the robe sways in the wind, the platinum embroidery on the robe is like starlight shining on the water.
‘It doesn’t make sense, really.’
It’s a design that makes no sense.
A robe with only an ordinary function was not called an artifact and was decorated in a treasure trove for no reason. It was beautiful even when looking through the glass window…
‘After trying it on, it doesn’t make any more sense.’
The fit doesn’t make any more sense.
Just by fluttering my sleeves, a bright smile came out. I’ve never been greedy for clothes my whole life, but I felt like I might be a little greedy for this.
“Raniel.”
As I was staring at the robe blankly, Cardi called me. She turned her head and saw Cardi pointing at a pile of stones.
“Take this away. “I think it’s this way.”
“Destroy it?”
“Don’t destroy it, just clean it up. “I don’t want to blow up the statue inside.”
I nodded.
On our second day in the wilderness, we continued to move along like this.
‘I need to find a stone statue.’
Cardi said that in order to enter the Land of Ashes the ‘proper’ way, you need to activate the statue. The statues were buried all over the wilderness, and Cardi quickly discovered the location of the statues even without a map.
“…is it also in the north?”
I muttered while looking at the statue.
I remember the Grace family shrine, and the stone statue placed there, also looked like this.
“North? Ah, you’re talking about the place where Ganicalt’s sword was inserted. “Did you stop by there too?”
“One of my students is an heir to the Grace family.”
“Grace, that’s the name.”
Sighing and laughing, Cardi traced the circuitry of the statue buried in the stone.
“So, did the statue you placed there work well? “It was a stone statue prepared as a test for the child who would draw that sword.”
“Yeah, huh?”
“I asked if it was working well. “It’s been a while since the statue was made, so I’m a little worried.”
It worked well.
It went well…
‘They blocked my way so much that I destroyed everything.’
I glanced at Cardi.
Cardi, who was touching the statue, was not looking at me. I answered Cardi’s question with a bit of remorse.
“Uh… it works… well.”
“I’m glad if that’s the case.”
“But, did you make this?”
“To be exact, it was developed by Gleria. “I just inserted a specific circuit into this statue.”
Gleria.
‘Gleria, Bel Armias.’
The first saint and now an apostate.
‘And Cardi’s old colleague.’
The closer Cardi got to the land of ashes, the more often Cardi said the name ‘Gleria’. She seemed to enjoy just talking about her.
“…I guess the first saint had a lot of talent?”
“It was a lot of guys. “Because he had all the talents of not only divine magic, but also alchemy, summoner, and pure wizard.”
Cardi became more talkative whenever he talked about her. Is she happy to be reminiscing about her old memories, or is she just glad to hear a story about a person like Gleria and someone she can understand?
Probably both.
Thinking about that, I laughed bitterly.
“She is on a different level from the saints I know.”
“Because Gleria was special.”
“It’s done,” Cardi muttered, taking her hand away from the statue. The statue’s eyes glowed, and the tip of the spear in its hand pointed in a certain direction.
“That’s next.”
Cardi walked ahead.
I walked after him.
2.
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It was the second night after crossing the wilderness.
Most of the statues have been activated, Cardi said, and all that’s left is to enter the Land of Ashes. Before the full-scale exploration, as it was late at night, we prepared to camp in a corner of the wilderness.
Crack, crack.
As I stabbed the burning firewood with kindling, I glanced across the street. There was Cardi, scribbling something on the floor from earlier.
“What are you doing earlier?”
“Just wait.”
Cardi, who had been scribbling for a while, eventually put down the branch and looked at me.
“Raniel, have you ever encountered an illusion of me while climbing the Kurakt Mountains in the north?”
“illusion? “The one that came out with that Skeleton?”
“okay.”
Cardi said, nodding.
“Then, when you faced Skebal, you must have seen the spell I used there.”
“···I saw you dropping something unreasonable like the sun.”
“okay. “This is the circuit of the spell.”
Cardi tapped the floor.
There was a huge circuit engraved on the floor. It was a circuit of a type I had never seen before. A unique circuit where ancient circuits and current circuits mix and coexist.
“Is this the spell?”
I narrowed my eyes.
“I don’t think so?”
Cardi’s order that I saw there.
I had drawn that circuit diagram in my head. Simply in terms of power, I could use the same spell as Cardi.
‘But, this…’
Circuit carved into the floor.
This had a completely different aspect from the circuit I drew. It is not a spell that focuses on powerful ‘oriental medicine’. It was a spell with the ‘next time’ in mind after dropping one shot.
“At that time, my mana was disappearing, so I couldn’t use spells properly. Actually, this wasn’t necessary to catch that guy. “It has different uses.”
“Then what is the spell used for?”
Cardi let out a short breath in response to my question.
“This is a spell to kill Gleria.”
“···what?”
I took a deep breath.
Cardi pointed to the circuit with an expressionless expression.
“After Gleria was corrupted, her talent as a summoner blossomed. She brought back many of her dead, gathered them together, and made them her own familiars.”
The miracle of resurrection.
Alchemical wealth created by exploiting it.
“In order to kill her, the familiar had to be erased all at once. Also, she had to make it impossible for her to summon new familiars. “I shouldn’t have left the mana for her to restore her body.”
This is a spell created with those things in mind.
Cardi muttered that and looked at me.
“Drop flames and burn the familiar. “The residual fire left behind by the flame temporarily seals all magical means that exist there.”
The order is divided into two processes.
Cardi, who was explaining it, laughed bitterly.
“It was effective.”
“···you.”
“I tried it. “It was successful.”
He saw a burning bonfire.
His golden eyes were sunken, and a faint smile was on his lips. It was the expression of someone reminiscing about the past and regretting it.
“…I couldn’t finish it, but the spell itself was useful.”
He sighed and looked at me.
“Learn it. “I’ll have something to write about later.”
While looking at that face, I asked quietly.
“···Why couldn’t you finish it?”
“well.”
Cardi laughed bitterly.
“I guess I thought at the time that there must be another way.”
3.
The night was deep.
Unlike Raniel, who was asleep in the tent, Cardi was alone tinkering with the bonfire. The night is deep, but Cardi can’t sleep.
The wind blowing is quite chilly.
If you raise your head and look towards where the wind blows, you will see a land of ashes in the distance. That is where Cardi’s homeland is located. Although it wasn’t where he was born, Cardi’s life began there.
Lived like a human.
They lived intertwined with humans.
Like those who live in a fleeting moment, they lived each day in a hurry. If life now is like a pile of burning ashes, then life was a brightly burning fire.
‘I miss you.’
Because I miss it, old memories come to mind.
The brilliant past continued to linger in Cardi’s mind. The closer I get to the land of ashes, the more I think of Gleria.
“Please do me a favor, Armiel.”
To an elf who lives forever, the image of a woman engraved in an indelible moment flashes before my eyes.
“······.”
Remembering her, Cardi looks at the land of ashes. There are no strong castle walls like in the past, nor spires soaring into the sky.
All that is there are remnants of history.
There are only traces left that show how the most prosperous nation fell into decline. And, Cardi wants to.
“I wish I could understand.”
The Gray Wizard, Raniel Van Trias.
I hope she catches a piece of the truth in her kingdom of ashes. Cardi sincerely hopes to catch him and gain the right to hear the second truth.
* * *
No matter how dirty the place is, people still settle there. It doesn’t matter whether it’s the back alleys of the kingdom, a shadowy slum, or anywhere else.
The drier the better.
The less light the better.
Those who break the law and don’t want to be bound by the rules seek out dark places. Those who began to gather one by one create a foundation. They live as parasites on something someone else has made.
A land of ashes.
It’s the same there too. On the outskirts of the Land of Ashes, crumbled remains of ruins remain. There were people living there as parasites.
It is said to be the dirtiest place.
A paradise for outlaws.
A demonic realm that exists in the human world.
From criminals who became famous in each country to deserters who ran away from the battlefield. The lawless area created by all kinds of dirty and servile things is the gray wasteland located on the outskirts of the Land of Ashes.
“There have been a lot of customers recently.”
The mercenary guarding the entrance was resting his chin and muttering. There are a lot of customers these days. In particular, many people who may have made a name for themselves wherever they go come to visit.
‘There are already two heroes.’
There is nothing good about mixing with monsters who have risen to the rank of superhumans. Every time such a customer came, the mercenary would sneak away. Even though his role is to guard the entrance to this place, he can’t stop superhumans, right?
Fortunately, their destination is not a gray wasteland.
The land of ashes beyond here was their destination. I didn’t know why they were heading to a place full of all kinds of magical beasts, but it wasn’t something the mercenary needed to worry about.
“Whoa…”
Mercenaries kill time by burning medicine.
It’s not like special guests come every day, and even those who come to ‘use’ this place are becoming quite cautious these days.
This is the moment when the mercenary is wondering how he will spend his time today.
Trudging.
Footsteps were heard from afar. The mercenary narrowed his eyes and looked towards where the sound was coming from. A young man and woman were approaching this place.
‘···Not a special visitor.’
The clothes look quite luxurious, but the face is not that of a ‘special’ human being, like a warrior or a superhuman. It was my first time seeing this face.
“Hwiyu.”
The mercenary looked towards the woman and whistled. Even though it is covered by a robe, the impression is quite pretty, and the curves revealed above the robe are also quite attractive.
Lithe limbs, a fragile look.
At first glance, she is a girl who does not fit into this place at all. The mercenary, who was looking at every inch of the girl’s body, soon realized that the robe she was wearing was special.
‘It’s a magic tower.’
From the unique shape of the robe, the mercenary realizes that the two guests have come from the ‘Magic Tower’. Often, wizards from the Magic Tower would come to the Ash Wasteland to obtain items that could not be obtained through normal routes.
Is this that kind of guest again?
Thinking like that, the mercenary opened his mouth.
“Are you two guests?”
The mercenary asks a question.
The girl tilted her head in response to the question.
“customer?”
“The Gray Wasteland sells all kinds of ‘stuff’ that cannot be found in ordinary places. If you are here to trade goods, use the password you received in advance…”
“It’s a password.”
One of the two guests.
A man wearing a robe interrupted the mercenary.
“I didn’t know you’d need a password to enter my hometown.”
An overbearing tone of voice that seems unpleasant.
He approached the mercenary with long strides. The mercenary laughs at the sight.
‘Anyway, the wizards of the Magic Tower…’
To put it bluntly, I don’t understand it and I hate it.
Perhaps because they are a race steeped in a sense of superiority, they have a strong tendency to act as they please.
“That doesn’t work here, sir.”
But this place is a gray wasteland.
It is not called a lawless zone for nothing. The once famous mercenary pulled out his sword and shrugged his shoulders.
“If you don’t give me the password, it will be difficult to let you in.”
I don’t know where the wizards came from, but it seemed like they needed to receive some etiquette training before setting foot in the lawless area. With a sinister smile, the mercenary adjusts his sword and holds it.
“oh···.”
The girl who sees it can only briefly admire it.
There was no sense of tension at all.
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