30 Years Have Passed Since the Prologue - Chapter 64

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B

Chapter 64: 11. St. Yansk University and the Chamber of Secrets (7)

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* * *

There was no flash racing toward them, no spectacular explosion. Naturally. Those only followed when there was something to explode.

What could possibly explode beneath this ground, where underground water flowed?

-Rumbleeeee...!!

There were vibrations, though. The shockwave that followed such large-scale destruction now filled the cavern beneath them.

Ivan turned around with his axe in hand.

"...!!!!"

Elphihara was shouting something, her face a cocktail of terror, rage, and bewilderment.

Ah. His hearing was shut off.

He had no intention of restoring it. There might not have been an explosion, but the deafening roar was surely echoing through the entire cavern right now. Noise beyond a certain threshold ruined concentration.

"Cast a protective spell."

Ivan spoke clearly to the elf, then settled back into position.

Rumbleeeee. The earth groaned low, and cracks crumbled beneath his feet.

"It's about to collapse."

"...!! !!! ...!?!"

He had learned lip-reading. The moment he looked, he knew the elf was desperately spewing curses.

What concerned him was whether she could cast a protective spell. Since that was not the issue, there was no reason to care.

He reached out and wrapped an arm around Elphihara's waist.

"!!!?!"

You planned this from the start?! Rapist!! You ordinary human!

He did not know what that last word meant, but it was probably one of those elf-like insults.

"Protective spell."

Ivan answered shortly, then said,

"And don't close your eyes."

He threw himself over the precipice.

"If you see the flow of mana, don't lose it. Do what you have to do. Everything else is my responsibility."

He did not know how much force the protective spell could withstand. Beolgreen's had been sturdy enough to block even an attack from one of the Seven Dragon Generals, at least once.

Even if it was not at that level, it should be able to stop small stones striking their bodies.

Trusting that, Ivan felt an odd sense of weightlessness as he looked up at the ceiling from the darkness spreading beneath the precipice.

-Rumbleeeee...!!

Another earthquake struck, and the focal point of the impact, which had been forming precarious cracks, burst apart.

Earth and enormous slabs of rock began pouring after them into the abyss.

* * *

Don't close my eyes...?

Elphihara glared at the insane old man-monkey, who was neither old nor a monkey, and desperately wiped away her tears.

The wind battered her face. Her once-prized hair was already filthy with dust, and it slapped and stuck to her face in the rushing wind.

Mmph, ngh!

Breathing was difficult enough. The thunderous roar shaking the whole cavern, the endless fall with nothing beneath her feet, the sensation of floating. It was nearly a miracle that she had managed to cast even a protective spell in this situation.

There was no way she could squeeze out any more concentration.

"How am I supposed to do that?!"

No human with even the faintest understanding of magic's mysteries and wisdom would dare say such a thing. What on earth was this stupid monkey...

-If you are even half as capable as your father, your skill is already beyond question.

'Ah...'

This human had said he stood on the same battlefield as her father. Nothing about his shabby appearance inspired any trust.

She had come here in the first place because of the eldest son of the Eastvelpen Barony's guarantee.

It was surely a lie, but it could place a political noose around the legitimate eldest son of a Privy Council member. She had agreed with only that much determination.

Yet now, she could not bring herself to think it was a lie.

Anyone capable of causing this much destruction barehanded would have been more than qualified to stand beside her father during the last racial war.

Which meant...

'Your father would have managed something like this easily.'

That was what he meant. That he trusted her ability.

Just as she had followed him because she trusted Oswald Eastvelpen's guarantee.

This man had been watching over her because he trusted the ability of Beolgreen Grikenkos.

'My father would have done it. He would have, but...'

Elphihara forced her eyes open. Wind whipped violently against her face, but she struggled to lift the corners of her eyes, wet with tears.

She was an elf.

An elf of the Kalion Archipelago, the noblest and strongest race in the world.

And among those elves, she was the daughter of Beolgreen, said to be one of the greatest mages since the Age of Myth.

She remembered the words her father had always repeated when she was young.

-Magic is the study of turning illusion into reality.

-Elphihara. Magic builds a staircase to the heavens for mortals who stand upon the earth.

-So build your mental image.

"Heaven..."

Elphihara murmured as she glared at the high ceiling of the cavern, where the sky should have been.

She held mana within herself to reach the heavens.

"Earth..."

Standing upon the dust of the earth, yet keeping her heart straight. Then...

Humanity. To straighten the mental image of a mortal, walk the staircase of intent toward the heavens, and take one more step forward.

Heaven, Earth, Humanity. The Three Talents. The process of unifying the three elements of intent was the foundation of magic Beolgreen had devised.

"Kyahhh!!"

The moment she began constructing the spell, a massive falling rock plunged toward her head.

She desperately twisted her body to avoid it, but it was impossible. They were in the middle of a precipice. She was falling.

There was not even time to cast a levitation spell. Her protective spell could not stop a falling rock that large!

She was going to die.

Sudden terror filled her vision. The intent she had painstakingly gathered to shape her mana scattered apart.

All she could do was watch death approach, trembling and sobbing in fear.

Then.

-Kwaaaaang!!!

An axe blade cut through the air. With that single strike, the boulder became countless pebbles and scattered helplessly in every direction.

Elphihara trembled amid the rain of stones, still gripped by terror.

Then a low, calm voice that did not suit the situation at all, and was all the clearer for it, rang beside her ear.

"Build your intent. Weave the magic, and find the mana in this space."

"But, but how am I supposed to do that? I, I'm... I'm...!"

"Elphihara."

"Hic...?"

A firm hand was wrapped around her waist.

It encircled her slender, nimble waist with one arm, solid and steadfast, as though it would drive every trace of fear from her shaking body.

Without realizing it, Elphihara leaned against that warm body and sobbed.

The voice continued, low and husky, yet gentle.

"Hold an illusion and bring reality into being."

"That... that means..."

"Forget that you are Beolgreen's daughter. You are already complete on your own, Elphihara. Look at yourself, and build your mental image upon the earth."

"You... you..."

"Everything else is not your responsibility. Your safety, your life, your fear. Leave all of it to me. That is my responsibility. You only need to do what you can."

That was all he expected of her.

Everything else was his to handle.

Through her trembling vision, only his eyes, burning a vivid blue, looked directly at her.

"Just as I trust you, trust me as well. As Beolgreen did. I have never failed at what I had to do, even before your father."

"Y-your name... At least tell me your name."

A man like this could not have gone unmentioned by her father. For some reason, Elphihara felt that she would only be at ease if she heard his name, even in a situation like this.

Ivan casually turned his gaze away. He struck aside another falling rock and whispered in a low voice.

"Ivan."

"...You know that's an incredibly lazy name for an alias, right?"

"I know."

"Humans really are..."

Ivan was the most common name in Krasilov. It was used by everyone from tenant farmers to nobles, and it was such an outdated name that even serf families no longer gave it to their children.

Still, that was enough. Elphihara smiled brightly.

Entrusting even her life to him, trusting him completely.

All she had to do was find a single thread of mana.

It was not difficult. If she found even this difficult, the name of Beolgreen, no, the name of the elves would weep.

Elphihara. Flower of the fairies. If she had received such a name from Kallion's greatest man, she had to prove herself worthy of it.

She wove mana.

She built her intent and constructed a staircase toward the heavens.

Her feet planted on the earth, her intent rising, all the way to the great heavens.

The mystery of magic, the source of its secrets, was always the sky. She prayed for the ancient wisdom that lay beyond that sky.

She wove mana to see the principles of the world.

The illusions of mortals, vague fantasies, images in the mind, gathered at her fingertips and were shaped into reality.

"I can... see it!!"