Chapter 184: Confusion (1) |
The figure who exerted the greatest influence over the magical power of the nobles and who, even now, continues to be mentioned as a legend.
The individual who first established the concept of magical stars, who measured the domain of the gods, and who stands at the very origin of this magic-centered noble supremacism.
The great mage who explored the world beneath the Great Bear, Adelbert, is nothing more than a fictional character created by a 6-star mage of the confusion system.
Roselin’s words were, in practice, a claim powerful enough to turn the entire noble magical world built thus far upside down.
“That absurd individual never existed in the first place, and no matter how much you scour any corner of the distant past, you will not find a single trace of him.”
“And yet, from a certain day onward, countless mages began to recognize the existence of that legendary figure and to believe in him.”
“Do you truly feel that this magic-centered nobility possesses such a long history? The perception that magic is noble existed before, but not at this level.”
“Magic is not so different from learning a technique. The achievement of the great mage Adelbert, of granting magic itself a mystique that borders on the divine, is nothing more than a façade created by a mage of the confusion system and spread throughout the world.”
As he strode down the corridor with long steps, Dereck wore a grave expression.
No one would believe a story like that.
It was an era in which magic constituted the very foundation of noble power.
In such a context, denying the fundamental purity of magic, as Roselin did, was nothing more than turning the entire world against oneself.
Magic had already become the axis of imperial nobility a very long time ago.
Not ten or twenty years, but easily several centuries.
Over that long period, countless noble houses had staked their lives on magical refinement precisely because of the inherent nobility attributed to magic.
Was magic not, as the exclusive monopoly of the nobility, the most important means of representing their authority?
And yet, all of that was nothing more than a perception fabricated by someone.
“It’s not just Adelbert. Long before that, a mage with immense power, impossible for us to perceive, was gradually saturating the Empire with magic. Creating Adelbert, a fictitious existence and the ideal of all noble mages, was merely one part of that grand movement.”
Throughout the long history of the Empire, someone had been constantly injecting into this world the idea that magic is something noble.
Sometimes by creating memories of people who never existed, sometimes by giving rise to stories that never happened.
That was how Gremport became a holy land of magic.
These were not movements spanning ten or twenty years.
It was a work built over an immensely long period of time, and we do not even know who was responsible.
The distortion Roselin had discovered was nothing more than a small fragment of something vast and invisible.
“To think this…?”
Although he felt that Roselin’s assertions had a fantastical air, Dereck had decided to believe her, at least for now.
However, her theory turned out to be even more radical than he had imagined.
Even Roselin herself spoke with an expression that seemed to say, “If you don’t believe it, there’s nothing to be done.”
She was aware of how absurd her own claim sounded.
Magic is not noble at all, nor is it an exclusive privilege of the nobility.
The reason the children of noble families often display greater magical aptitude is nothing more than having inherited good genes, having trained in better environments, and monopolizing magical knowledge and training methods.
That is why, from time to time, even among commoners, individuals appear who reach high levels in magic.
Drest was one of them.
Kalimford was another.
And now, in the same way, so was Dereck.
“It seems I need to organize my thoughts better.”
After all, the evening banquet had been postponed because Emperor Gatrell was still not ready.
He intended to use that time to walk through the academy gardens and continue reflecting.
However, someone stopped Dereck’s hurried steps.
“Baron Ravenclaw, an urgent matter has arisen.”
“…?”
As Dereck, accompanied by his attendants, was about to leave through the main entrance of the hall, he tilted his head in confusion.
The one who had called out to him in an urgent voice was an imperial magical adviser wrapped in a reddish-brown robe.
From the emblem of a feather drawn along the left side of the hood, he appeared to be a direct subordinate of Kohella.
“I am Aren, a member of the committee of direct imperial magical advisers of the Palace of Gremport.”
“What is the matter?”
“We need you to proceed immediately to the Bellos Pavilion. It appears necessary to completely suspend all events planned for today and tomorrow and declare a state of emergency.”
“…?”
Just as Dereck was about to ask what all this meant—
Rumble! Boom! Rumble!
Whooom!
Across the vast grounds of the newly built Academy Ravenclaw, colossal in size yet still nearly empty inside, an enormous magic circle began to rise along the perimeter.
In an instant, it took the form of a barrier and enveloped the entire area.
“W-what is this? A-an earthquake?”
“Ahh! Hold on tight so you don’t fall!”
Rumble! Boom!
Whummm!
When Dereck frowned and raised his gaze to the sky, he could clearly see the formation of a barrier being completed with flawless precision.
An absolute spatial isolation spell, allowing neither entry nor exit.
Five-star transformation magic, large-scale spatial separation.
In the entire world, only a handful of individuals were capable of manifesting transformation magic of such magnitude instantaneously and without prior preparation.
And given the circumstances, it was obvious who had erected such a colossal barrier.
The magical adviser standing before him did not show the slightest hint of surprise at the sudden change in the surroundings.
As if she had known it would happen, she merely explained the situation calmly.
“At this moment, Lady Kohella is raising the barrier to prevent anyone from entering or leaving.”
“…Why?”
“To prevent the suspect from escaping.”
The word “suspect” sent a chill of foreboding through Dereck.
And what Aren said next was a revelation so absurd that it instantly wiped away everything he had just heard from Roselin.
“Emperor Gattrel has been assassinated.”
It heralded an upheaval on a national scale.
***
When they arrived at the Bellos Pavilion, which had been provided as the emperor’s residence, the faces of the imperial guards and the servants were already completely pale, without a single drop of blood left in them.
The news had not yet spread to the Amaryllis dormitories, but at least among the people staying in the Bellos Pavilion, it seemed that the information had already circulated completely.
The content of what had been conveyed made one doubt one’s own ears even when hearing it again.
Emperor Gattrel had been assassinated.
The aged emperor who had shared nearly a hundred years of history with this empire had ended his life precisely in this place.
Accompanied by the chief butler and the head maid, Dereck strode briskly through the inner corridors of the Bellos Pavilion.
Every person he passed wore an expression of absolute shock.
Guided by the magical adviser Aren, Dereck headed toward the rooms reserved for the distinguished guests who had arrived from the imperial capital.
Along the way, he crossed paths with several magical advisers whom Kohella had personally brought and returned their greetings with a slight nod of his head.
He also encountered the imperial chief butler and head maid, whom he questioned about the situation.
No one looked well.
If the information Aren had conveyed was true, then at least some of the people who had been present that night would bear inescapable responsibility.
And responsibility was like an unpredictable fish—you never knew from where or when it might leap out and suddenly strangle you.
There were several hundred guards assigned exclusively to protect a single building, and yet the emperor had been assassinated.
How could something like this have happened?
Maintaining his composure as much as he could, Dereck finally arrived at the very door of the imperial bedroom.
‘The security is even stricter than I imagined.’
Two members of the imperial guard stood watch at each window, and four more guarded the door.
According to what he had heard, there were also guards stationed along the outer wall, personnel monitoring the roof in case someone attempted to descend from above, and, in addition, a double line of escort around the perimeter.
More than an iron fortress, it was an environment where not even a rat could slip in.
Creaak.
Dereck opened the door and entered.
Before him appeared an enormous table lavishly prepared for the emperor.
And there, reclined as if asleep, lay Emperor Gattrel.
His expression was strangely serene, as though he were enjoying a deep sleep.
That aged emperor, who so often furrowed his brow, now simply looked like a man exhausted who had succumbed to fatigue.
However, beneath his neck had pooled a large amount of blood that had already dried.
And upon observing the open hole in his left chest, it was evident that there was no heart left inside.
“…”
Dereck ran a hand over his face.
Right here, on the grounds where the Academy Ravenclaw was being constructed, just before the inspection event prior to the opening ceremony.
The emperor had died in this place.
A sense of pressure, similar to what he had felt when facing a colossal beast during a deadly raid, ran down his spine.
Catastrophes could not be avoided, and trials arrived without warning.
Dereck did not panic, but neither could he afford to relax.
“You have arrived, Sir Dereck.”
From beside the corpse, Kohella, who was breathing heavily, straightened up.
The empire’s chief magical adviser, the old fox regarded as the most powerful among the mages of Gremport Palace.
Uncharacteristically for her, she was drenched in cold sweat and breathing with difficulty.
Even for a transformation mage of her level, deploying a barrier formation capable of completely engulfing the academy grounds must have been an extreme effort.
And on top of that, she had had to do it quickly in order to block all escape routes before identifying the suspect.
“This old body should no longer be pushed this far… the last time I deployed a formation of this magnitude must have been during the Dawn War.”
“May I request a detailed explanation of the situation?”
“If we speak only of the result, what you see before your eyes is everything. But if we go into the details, we would never finish.”
Kohella collapsed wearily into a luxurious chair in a corner of the room.
That she did not show panic at the sight of the emperor’s corpse was fitting for someone who had been through all kinds of situations in her life.
Even so, she did not seem completely unshaken by such a shocking event.
Wiping away the cold sweat, she spoke in a trembling voice.
“Between the moment we arrived at the Bellos Pavilion and the completion of the banquet preparations… someone managed to breach the security of this building and assassinate His Majesty.”
“……”
It was a literal description of what had occurred.
Yet no matter how many times one heard it, it was difficult to accept it at face value.
The supreme ruler of this era, who for nearly a hundred years had looked down upon all from the pinnacle of the empire, had died in such an absurd manner.
And then, Kohella’s next words complicated the situation even further.
“Within this small building alone, there were more than five hundred guards stationed.”
“…”
“However, at the exact moment His Majesty was assassinated… no one remembers where they were or what they were doing.”
The preliminary investigation had already been conducted.
The moment the incident occurred, Kohella had immediately gathered the imperial guard to hear their testimonies.
But no one remembered what they had been doing during the estimated time of the crime.
They all described a vague sensation, as if they had lost time without realizing it.
That perhaps they had fallen asleep.
That maybe they had lost their concentration.
It was not a simple matter of poor memory or failing to notice something suspicious.
The memories did not exist.
The memory itself had been erased.
What did that mean?
“Is this someone capable of directly manipulating memory?”
“…”
Kohella’s silence was the answer.
The method of the crime was absurdly simple.
Enter calmly, kill the emperor, erase all memories, and leave.
So simple that it was almost insulting.
But erasing the memories of hundreds of imperial guards all at once far exceeded the level of a mere expert in confusion magic.
It was something far beyond that.
“…”
Dereck once again ran a hand across his forehead and sharpened his gaze even further.
Panicking would solve nothing.
A being that trampled even memory, that manipulated the five senses…
How was one supposed to capture someone like that?
It was a task that demanded making the impossible possible.
And yet, there were moments in life when one had no choice but to accept that challenge.
For Dereck, it was nothing new.