〈 Episode 322 〉 Gray Magic Tower (5)
* * *
The disciple I raised as a son is trying to kill me.
Roselle was scared and backed away from Rania for a while, and after a long struggle, Roselle was eventually caught by Rania. Of course, Rania did not hit Rossel in the head, and Rania knelt in front of Rossell and explained the situation for a while.
“…Was that something like that?”
“Then what else can there be…?”
Rania sighed and lowered her head.
“Why did I kill Master in the first place? “I have some kind of grudge against you, Master.”
“That’s right… that’s right.”
Rossell rationally thinks so too.
However, if this child is suspiciously active, you may be wondering, ‘Perhaps…?’ I also can’t deny what I thought. Because he is a child who is quick to judge strange things.
“Or, Master, have you done something wrong to me? “Why are you so disgusted?”
Rania laughed mischievously, and Roselle laughed helplessly and fed honey balm to Rania’s head.
“ouch!”
“What would you say to a teacher who was trying to make a cup of coffee for his student who was sweating profusely on a hot day?”
“Uh, um… I’m sorry.”
Rania rubbed her bangs and laughed.
Roselle sighed and tapped Rania’s head with the back of her hand. When I think back to the situation a little while ago, I still feel like my heart is pounding.
“Whoa…”
Roselle let out a short breath and cleared her throat.
“So, I was just talking about the elder.”
Squinted eyes.
Rosell looked at his student and said.
“Tell me more.”
* * *
Rania told Rosell everything she knew, and after listening to the story for a while, Roselle touched his chin and fell into a deep sleep.
“…You didn’t explain the reason or the cause?”
“Yes, you were blatantly trying to change the subject.”
Roselle has seen the elder since he was young.
At that time, she was an elder (??), not an elder, but from then on, the personality of the magician named Cranbel Eleanoa never changed. For several decades.
‘He is a man of deep thoughts.’
If they are hiding information, there must be a reason.
“You are not a person obsessed with your own honor. He is also a person who would rather remain silent and drink than tell lies. “It is difficult to guess the reason since he is such a deep thinker.”
Roselle tilted her teacup.
Rossel narrowed his eyes as he sipped his tea.
“The elder asked you to kill him?”
“···yes.”
“Are you planning on granting that request?”
Rania pursed her lips.
Unable to answer easily, she lowered her head slightly and opened her mouth with difficulty.
“···I think so.”
Roselle looked at Rania’s expression.
He seems to be in agony and hesitation, but that doesn’t mean he has to kill the elder with his own hands. In another part, Rania was suffering.
“Lesti, you seem to be worried about that kid.”
Rania, who had hit the nail on the head with a start, shook her shoulders.
She raised her head, looked at Roselle and said.
“I was just thinking about that.”
Rania sighed.
“To her, the elder is like a teacher to me. He is a father, a benefactor, and a teacher. “He’s such a big person.”
A teacher who changed his life.
A benefactor who helped him walk the magic path and provided a stage for him to fully unfold his potential. And, a person who became a father to him, an orphan with no family.
It is a relationship that cannot help but be special.
If such a family member woke up from a hospital bed after several years and was murdered by someone… how would Lesti feel?
“If I were me before experiencing the battlefield, I feel like I would be a little broken.”
The person who stood next to me.
If you don’t have the experience of losing someone you consider precious, you too will be broken. Rania was sure of that.
‘To begin with, I still think it’s still like that.’
Even now that I have reached a certain level of spiritual maturity, the thought of my teacher dying gives me goosebumps.
It’s something I don’t even want to imagine.
Resty has to experience something like that in real life.
“That kid smiled and said he was having fun every day.”
I keep thinking of the moment when Resty smiled brightly and said ‘thank you’ in an excited voice.
A voice echoing in my ears.
A smile glimmering before my eyes.
That kept Rania feeling tight inside. Rania muttered, feeling her frustration.
“It’s a situation where we have to take that away.”
With none other than your own hands.
“It’s not an easy story.”
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Roselle sighed.
It really wasn’t an easy story.
‘Seeing as you are asking for death, it seems impossible to take your own life…’
If Rania does not kill the elder, the elder will turn into something else before Resti’s eyes. This means that a more terrible situation will occur.
No matter where you choose, waiting is a tragedy.
This is a story where only a tragic ending awaits, no matter which direction you go. The carriage, unable to stop, is running toward the cliff.
“The choice is yours, but in this case, I think there are two ways.”
Roselle spread two fingers.
“One, tell everything to that child, Resty. He tells me everything he told me. “It’s a way to face the truth and overcome it yourself.”
It is a straight method.
Because it is a degree (??), it is the most difficult path.
“Two.”
Roselle sighed.
This is not a method I would recommend.
However, not everyone can walk the difficult path. Sometimes, choosing the wrong path can be the way to save someone who would be ruined while walking on the right path.
“Fake it.”
Rosell said.
“I was murdered by someone. No one knows who it is. However, he exists somewhere. “Fool him like that.”
For Rania, this is possible.
“I let that child live out of revenge. At least it won’t break while the wick is burning.”
Until you can accept the truth.
Until you are mentally mature.
Fool her again and again.
“···that.”
“I don’t want to recommend it. However, I just want you to know that there is a path like this.”
Rania was silent.
Roselle sighed and wiped the corners of her eyes.
“The choice is yours. Or, maybe there is a better way. “Let’s think about it a little more.”
Roselle said that and Rania nodded.
But both of them have a hunch.
There is no other way.
Perhaps, you will have to choose one or the other.
2.
I stood in front of the gray magic tower and sighed.
In the end, I couldn’t choose either one.
While I was thinking about it, the day dawned, and I postponed my decision until later. You don’t have to choose right away. There was still about a month left.
Making excuses to myself, I entered the gray magic tower. It was not difficult to visit the Magic Tower because of the special nature of my status as the successor to the Gray Wizard, and because the elder had said that I could visit freely.
Resty was not visible, probably busy with work.
Feeling rather fortunate, I headed to the top floor of the Magic Tower.
“Ah, are you here?”
The elder was waiting for me in the same place as yesterday, with the same expression as yesterday. I nodded, dragged a chair over, and sat down next to the elder.
“Have you considered my offer?”
“…There are still a lot of things to do.”
I nodded.
“I’ll do it.”
However, I added a condition.
“Please tell me everything. “With nothing to hide.”
“There is a reason to hide it…”
“Even though I am not an elder, there are many secrets that I know. There is a lot of information that needs to be hidden. “There is nothing to say before permission is given, so just say it.”
I laughed bitterly.
“I think I need to hear the inside story before I can make a choice.”
“···what?”
“Lesti Eleanor.”
The elder’s body stiffened and he flinched.
“When the elder dies, what do you think will happen to the child if it is found out that he was murdered by someone? “I’m sure he hasn’t thought about it.”
“······.”
The elder was silent.
I continued to say.
“I’d rather tell everything to that child…”
“That’s not possible.”
The elder interrupted me.
I narrowed my eyes. The elder was looking at me with a pained expression.
“That’s not enough. To that child…”
“What is the reason?”
“Isn’t that child definitely going to ask questions and try to find out the facts? “The child will wonder why I had this curse and why I tried to hide it from myself.”
It was a natural procedure.
I asked the elder a question.
“Can’t we do that?”
“no.”
“Why on earth…”
“Then I will have to tell you everything. And, I guess that’s what he wants.”
Him? I blinked.
The elder was in a cold sweat.
“Who is he?”
The elder was silent for a while.
After several minutes had passed, the elder struggled to open his mouth. he asked me
“Promise me you won’t tell.”
“I promise on my gray honor.”
“I believe it.”
The elder let out a breath and straightened his back.
“I made a contract with a shadow.”
contract.
The moment I heard the next words, I couldn’t help but gasp. Because the name of an unexpected being popped out.
“The shadow introduced himself as the first madman.”
The first madman.
The madman who created the shade.
The elder was telling me that he had made a contract with that being.
3.
Cranbel Eleanor, who took in Resty, sensed that the child would be her last disciple. She was a talented child and a quick learner.
Every day was a joy just watching Resty grow. Cranbell taught Resty everything and tried to be a good father to his lonely child.
Cranbel regarded that child as his own.
I sincerely hoped for the child’s growth and success, and I used to enjoy just imagining Lesti sitting in the seat of the magic tower in the future.
Then one day.
Cranbel saw a shadow inside the magic tower.
The shadow freely moved around the inside of the magic tower without being caught by any barrier. Cranbel chased after it and witnessed it hiding in Resty’s shadow.
It is not a familiar.
It’s not like a shadow.
It is something that cannot be identified.
While Resty was sleeping, Cranbel spoke to the shadow pooling beneath him. What are you doing, chasing this kid?
【It is parasitic on the seeds that will become giant trees.】
The shadow said with a strange laugh.
【It will be too late when it becomes a giant tree, so wouldn’t it be more efficient to become a parasite from now on? I think so, but what do you think?】
Cranbel poured out all kinds of magic to get rid of the shadow, but nothing could catch it. There is no set shape. Mana does not work. It is not a being that stays in this world.
A being that resides outside of providence.
A being close to a god(?) whispered into Cranbel’s ear.
【It’s no use, friend.】
The shadow tries to seep into Resty again.
An evil being has taken over Resty and is trying to eat away at her soul. Trying to devour her own disciples, her daughter-like beings. Cranbel had no intention of looking into that future.
I’m trying to find an answer.
For a short time, Cranbel was in agony, and he felt something familiar about the shadow in front of him. This is a clue that can be found because it was Cranbel Eleanoa, who studied mana trading by trading with stars for a long time.
Krembel believes that the shape of the shadow and the essence of it are like stars.
With some hesitation, Cranbel stretched out his hand towards the shadow. The wizard, who always asked for a deal from the stars in the sky, for the first time requested a deal from a shadow crawling on the ground.
“Deal.”
The shadow stops moving.
The shadow slowly escaped from Resty and glared straight at Cranbel. The pupils of the eyes are revealed from the shaped shadows. The exposed eyes have a human shape, but are not human.
The eyes of a madman.
The crazy person burst out laughing at Cranbel.
【Are you serious?】
“Deal…”
【Oh, of course. I never refuse anyone who wants to do business. Of course you should do it.】
The madman laughed.
【Tell me the conditions, foolish wizard.】
This is Cranbel, who has done countless transactions.
He expressed the conditions that the madman in front of him would wish for. The madman laughed when he heard the conditions.
【In exchange for this child, will you give me your soul?】
“Until the day my life comes to an end.”
【Is there a reason why I should do that?】
“It seems like living on an old tree like me is more valuable right now than a seed that hasn’t yet germinated. Don’t you think?”
Cranbel suggested.
“I am a gray elder. “I can’t become a giant like that kid, but for now, I have achieved higher achievements than that kid. For now, he is a parasite on my body…”
【When you die, will you change your body then?】
“okay.”
【What a tearful sacrifice.】
The shadow laughed.
【Do you like it. Surely it would be more fun that way. But let me add a condition.】
The shadow stretched out its hand.
The tip of the outstretched finger is pointed towards Resty, who has his eyes closed. The corner of her shadow’s mouth was torn as he pointed at her as she fell asleep.
【If that child asks about this contract, you will have to answer everything. Also, when that moment comes, I will suggest this to that child.】
This old man sacrificed himself for you.
I’ll give you a chance too.
Will you accept me on behalf of this old man?
The moment he heard those words, Cranbel’s body stiffened. Resty would certainly not reject that offer. I will definitely end up signing a contract.
“Not so…”
However, Krembel does not have the right to refuse those conditions. Ultimately, Cranbel accepted the offer.
【The contract is concluded, wizard.】
Until a thousand people (??) are exhausted.
Because that is the condition, Cranbel cannot commit suicide. She can’t even soldier. She gains temporary immortality through a contract with the transcendent. Instead, the lifespan given to you will be eaten away by this shadow until the end comes.
‘And one day, Resty will find out.’
That’s why Kranbel has precipitation.
He hurt his own soul.
Cranbell fell into a coma with his life destroyed. To hold her shadow on my body until the day her life comes to an end.
Four years of time earned like that.
In his hazy consciousness, Cranbel hoped and hoped. I hope that Resty grows during those four years. I sincerely hoped that I would grow and grow and not give the shadow a chance to survive.
“But the plan went wrong.”
The elder said, looking at his bony arms.
“I couldn’t sleep until the day I died, and I ended up waking up with 37 days left. “The shadow that was sleeping inside is trying to wake up.”
The elder opened his tightly closed eyes.
Half of it is stained black.
“If the remaining month or so passes, I will be completely consumed. “The shadow will try to capture Resty using my body as bait, and I don’t want that.”
The old man asked Rania a favor.
“So, please don’t tell Resty. “Just kill me the day the time given to me ends.”
Rania has no answer.
The teacher who sacrificed his life for his student is asking a favor. May your sacrifice not be in vain. I sincerely pray that that choice can remain as a sacrifice.
“Oh really···.”
Rania wiped the corners of her eyes.
‘I’m going crazy, really.’
A story where only tragedy awaits no matter where you go.
One more path is now missing from the story.
All that remains is deception, or the most cruel path.
* * *
fantasy,
