But words once spoken could not be taken back. Chloeia sat down across from Nerha, shedding tears of blood inside.
“So, the first thing I’m curious about is this part here.”
Nerha pointed to a section of the magic tome and fired a question at Chloeia.
“Haah, it’s a basic question about runic language.”
What kind of prank was this supposed to be...
Having ended up holding the bag, Chloeia had no choice but to answer the question.
Well, she thought that after asking a few times, he would get tired on his own.
“I’d like to know the meaning of this, but I don’t really understand it?”
“...?”
When the number of incoming questions exceeded twenty, Chloeia slowly began to sense that something was off.
And after several hours passed.
“Chloeia, why does this spell go through five stages of formation in such a complicated way?”
“You need to properly understand what each formation signifies. Magic fundamentally goes through five processes: mana condensation, power adjustment, target aiming, trajectory adjustment, and backlash reduction. These five stages.”
Chloeia demonstrated a basic wind spell as she continued her explanation.
“Depending on the type, some steps can be omitted, but fundamentally, when casting magic, these five elements are essential.”
Ignoring the look that said, How can you not know something so obvious?, the moment her answer ended, Nerha threw out another question.
“Isn’t the rune phrase Heidel Rorun Dea Sosakayes supposed to mean, ‘O wind, gather at my fingertips and scatter’? Why would you scatter it after gathering it?”
“Well, this is at least a decent question. Sosakayes can be confused with the word ‘Sokarayes,’ but it actually means ‘to bloom lavishly.’ In other words, it means, ‘Gather at my fingertips and bloom splendidly.’”
“Hm, I see.”
Until almost closing time, whenever Nerha didn’t know something, he asked Chloeia about everything. It truly wasn’t an exaggeration to say that the word “everything” was accurate, considering the storm of questions he unleashed.
‘Well, at this point, he’s probably satisfied enough, right?’
When the first day ended, Chloeia thought Nerha would stop teasing her.
But after five days passed like that, she began to feel that something was strange.
“Um, about this one...”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Chloeia looked at Nerha, who was still wrestling with basic textbooks today as well, with a peculiar expression.
‘What is he, really?’
He came in every day with just one trainee butler and did nothing but pore over basic textbooks.
At first, she thought he was just messing with her, but that serious expression and fervor didn’t look like a prank at all.
‘The level of his questions is really that of a complete beginner who just started learning magic.’
Even so, spending five whole days just to play a prank on her didn’t make any sense no matter how she thought about it.
So she asked.
“Why are you showing me such a side of yourself?”
“...?”
At Chloeia’s question, Nerha lifted his head and met her eyes.
‘Such a side? Is she asking why I suddenly started working so hard?’
It felt like the question had some other meaning, but Nerha interpreted it in the most general sense and answered.
“Well, I found out that I only have three months left.”
“Three months left?”
“Until I enter Libra, that is.”
Libra, the battle mage training institution of Radeus. It was the greatest magic academy established to raise those who entered under the protection of bloodlines or families into proper warriors. Almost all of Radeus’s bloodline members had to pass through Libra in order to take on important positions within their families.
“I have a lot of shortcomings, so I can’t help but work hard.”
“No, that’s not what I meant...”
“At the very least, I figured I should prepare with everything I have before going in.”
“...”
“So please help me. You’re the only one I can rely on.”
She wanted to say that wasn’t what she had meant by her question, but it felt like the timing to ask anything more had already passed.
Chloeia slightly puffed out her lips and turned her head away.
* * *
Bamel Radeus.
The fourth son of Radeus, the strongest magic family on the continent, and a young prodigy who had reached the realm of Level 5 at a young age, proving his worth as a direct bloodline of Radeus.
In his personal magic tower prepared within the family estate, Bamel was listening to the report of a subordinate who had returned from a mission. No, more precisely, a report from a subordinate who had failed his mission.
“So. You couldn’t find out how Nerha escaped from that place?”
“I, I’m sorry, Young Master Bamel. Since Young Master Nerha refused all audiences, I was unable to obtain detailed information.”
The subordinate who had gone as an envoy bowed his head deeply, looking ashamed.
Bamel frowned and glared at the back of his subordinate’s head.
“Hmph. There’s no way Nerha could have reached Level 5. He must have just been lucky, or someone else intervened.”
“Yes. It seems likely that the Third Madam took action.”
The Third Madam referred to Nerha’s biological mother, Roselia Radeus.
“Tch! I thought he’d starve to death there for sure. His life is annoyingly tough.”
Since the scheme had failed once, all they could do for now was keep an eye on him.
No matter how much the target was Nerha, the family’s attention would not tolerate a second attempt.
“So? What has Nerha been doing lately?”
“According to the person we planted in the estate, he’s been frequenting the Level 0 archive in Sector 14.”
“What?”
Sector 14, the Level 0 archive.
‘Did that brat enter that place knowing what it meant?’
That was unknown.
But one thing could be certain: because of that, Nerha might end up provoking the reverse scale of someone within the family.
Clicking his tongue, Bamel gave an order to his subordinate.
“At least it’s good that he isn’t holed up in the estate all the time. For now, move a few of the collateral branch under my command and provoke Nerha.”
“Isn’t it a bit too much to pay attention to Young Master Nerha? No matter how much he grows, he’ll never even reach your toes, Young Master Bamel’s...”
“You idiot!”
Crack!
Bamel struck the subordinate on the head with the staff he was holding and shouted with a scowl.
“Why would I care about Nerha himself? Why do you think that woman saved Nerha? To use him as a shield until the youngest grows up, that’s why!”
At Bamel’s outburst, the subordinate’s eyes widened as if he had finally realized something.
“Ah! Because of Lady Neia!”
Neia Radeus.
The youngest among the eight direct bloodline heirs with succession rights, and Nerha’s younger sister who shared the same mother. Unlike the dropout Nerha, Neia’s talent was overwhelming, to the point that among the eight siblings, she could even be compared to the “firstborn.”
Bamel ground his teeth.
“As long as the head of the family is still healthy, in about ten years, Neia might be able to participate in the succession battle. And even if Nerha is trash, he’s still one of the heirs with succession rights, so it wouldn’t hurt to trample him in advance.”
“Y, yes! As expected of you, Young Master Bamel!”
“Neia is under that woman’s ironclad protection, so she’s not easy to touch. But Nerha is different. If you understand, then move quickly!”
“Yes, y-yes!”
After the subordinate hurriedly disappeared, Bamel sank deep into his chair and muttered in a low voice.
“It would have been better if you had just died there. Surviving only to bring about even greater disaster.”
The power struggle within the family, which had been progressing beneath the surface, was slowly beginning to intensify in earnest.
In such a situation, Nerha entering Libra was clearly an excellent choice, but for Bamel, it was far from welcome.
* * *
“Hah, haah!”
Nerha was currently training his body at the training facilities prepared within the family grounds.
A typical regimen of sweating through the use of the equipment inside the facility or running laps.
“…My god.”
“What am I even looking at right now?”
The people of the family who passed by gaped in shock, but Nerha did not stop his training.
‘This damn, pathetically weak body of mine!’
What he thought would take about a month to heal, his internal injuries, had almost completely recovered in less than a week once a caster who specialized in healing magic was dispatched from the main house.
The fact that magic as a system of power far exceeded his expectations was a pleasant miscalculation, but separately from that, this trash-tier body of ‘Nerha Radeus’ was a level of weakness that the peerless martial god could not tolerate.
“Y, Young Master, aren’t you pushing yourself too hard...?”
Samir, the trainee butler who had been constantly at Nerha’s side lately, fidgeted nervously beside him.
“I have to push myself at least this much. Damn it, I didn’t think I’d have to worry about more than just magic!”
If he were only going to learn magic, that would be one thing, but Nerha planned to pursue both magic and martial arts together. More precisely, he planned to base everything on martial arts and blend magic into it.
‘Back in the Central Plains, there was only one guy who combined martial arts and sorcery. One of the Ten Great Masters, the Ghostly Fate Feathered Scholar.’
Honestly, in terms of pure martial arts, the Ghostly Fate Feathered Scholar had only just stepped past the threshold of the supreme realm.
But when that was combined with his fearsome sorcery, he displayed such overwhelming divine might that even most transcendent masters were devoured whole. Above all, during the Retreat from Mount Song when he fell into the traps of those demonic cult bastards, the fact that he humiliated the Heavenly Demon and safely evacuated the five thousand troops of the Martial Alliance became nothing short of legend.
‘The source of that bastard’s power was a completely new force created by the fusion of martial arts and sorcery. Many lost their lives to him because they couldn’t adapt to that novelty.’
It wasn’t just a matter of coating one’s fists in fire or wind.
If he continued to delve into magic, he had a hunch that he might once again reach the realm of Heaven and Earth Divine Unity that he had pierced through during his final decisive battle with the Heavenly Demon.
‘Even if I were to regain my original power, I don’t think I could reach that stage again.’
But if he trained within the complete power system of this world known as magic, he would surely be able to find clues to surpass his past realm.
‘Before that, though, I need to remodel this damn body, damn it.’
Even a third-rate martial artist found on the roadside would be better than this. No, this body couldn’t even be called the body of a martial artist to begin with.
Running just a couple of laps around the training grounds and already having his stamina drained, how did that make any sense?
“Hah, haah!”
Nerha finally felt his body reach its limit and stopped running. The iced water Samir brought tasted like nectar.
“A, are you all right?”
“I’m perfectly fine. It feels like I’ve gone back to the old days for the first time in a while.”
“The old days?”
“There’s something like that.”
Nerha spent almost most of his day either visiting the archive where Chloeia was or training his stamina.
Naturally, since there had been no proper environment for physical training in the estate he used to stay in, he inevitably spent more time wandering outside.
‘There’s still no particular attention being paid to me within the family. It’s about time someone made a move...’
He had roughly finished grasping the power structure within the family. And he also had a general idea of the true identity of the culprit who had tried to have him killed.
‘Five years will be enough. Five years is enough time for me to gain the power to protect myself.’
Setting aside the pursuit of magical attainment and the headship of the family, in at least five years, Nerha would be able to grow strong enough to protect himself no matter who within the family came after him.
“Phew, let’s head back soon.”
“Yes! I’ll prepare a change of clothes right away!”
Now completely accustomed to Nerha’s antics, Samir quickly disappeared from sight to fetch his clothes.
This had already been going on for a week. Muscles were gradually forming, and he was slowly becoming accustomed to the way magicians handled mana.
‘At this rate, I should be able to resolve the basic issues before entering that training institution.’
The existence of Chloeia, whom he had coincidentally formed a connection with, was a great help to Nerha.
Of course, Nerha was well aware of her annoyed attitude. But when he showed genuine enthusiasm for learning, she too began to treat him with a certain degree of sincerity.
‘No matter how I think about it, I don’t get it. Someone of her caliber wouldn’t just be rotting away in a place like that...’
Could there be some secret hidden in that archive he had thought was completely ordinary?
‘Even Samir doesn’t seem to know much about her. Is there some other reason?’
Just as Nerha was organizing his thoughts about Chloeia.
“Long time no see, Nerha.”
From outside, he heard the voice of a boy with a lazy, swaggering tone.
