The Great Mage Returns After 4000 Years

Translator: Alpha0210

The mood suddenly turned cold.

He had gone to all that trouble to stir up a lively atmosphere, only for it to vanish again.

The Summit Hall was wrapped in heavy silence, and for a while not a sound could be heard.

Residue sensed not only the reaction of the majority, but the fact that the two knights who had kept their detached air no matter what was said until now – the Black Knight and the Blue Knight – had lifted their heads to look his way.

Pale's lips were twisted faintly. She looked displeased at not being chosen. Judging by that sour face of hers, it seemed she had indeed been thinking of going out to "The Outside".

And Lucid... how to put it. The man couldn't be read easily. His slightly stiffened expression looked almost as if he had settled on some resolution, but Residue couldn't tell which part of what he'd just said had led to such an attitude.

"I should like to ask how such a conclusion was reached."

But the one who voiced the question directly was neither of the two knights; it was the Black Thorn Demon King.

Next, Lightning God spoke.

"You too are at present one of the Twelve Void Lords, surely. Do you mean to exclude even yourself?"

"Regrettably, this body has already become a Previous Generation. You there, the mage from the Magic Planet."

At that, the blond man who had been watching the situation with a vacant face snapped to attention.

"Ah. Yes."

"A familiar face. Your name?"

"...Peran Jun."

"Peran Jun. You're not of a level to be here, so how did you come to be?"

Peran swallowed hard and answered.

"...Because at present I am the only mage in the Magic Planet able to mobilize."

"And what are the rest of them up to?"

"They are honing their own magic."

"......"

Of course they were.

The Magic Planet was the only place where every last one of its members had known about Destruction beforehand. Now that the enemy's assaults had begun in earnest, it was hardly strange that they would throw themselves into training.

Even so, to send a man of this caliber. At minimum it would take one of the Seven Magicians for any real conversation to be possible.

On top of that, Residue knew this man.

Peran Jun.

A human belonging to Lukas's home universe......

That was all.

Had it been Lukas, several more thoughts might have surfaced upon facing this man, but to Residue he was hardly a memorable human.

Nor did he look like someone who would be of help in the present crisis; if his hand were to be borrowed at all, he was the sort who ought to handle the cleanup after Destruction was repelled, not the one to devise countermeasures against the Destructions still to come. It wasn't a matter of looking down on him; that was simply the truth.

But in the very next moment, Residue realized that this man's level had made great strides compared to when he'd last seen him.

Had he picked up the Magic Planet's training methods, perhaps? Even so, there shouldn't have been time enough... and even granting the improvement, he was still only at the Mortal level. Never mind one of the Seven Magicians, he fell short of even a halfway-decent Absolute.

In any case, it was none of Residue's further concern, so he went on with what he'd had in mind to say.

"With this body gone, how is the Magic Planet running?"

"The affairs of the domain and the countermeasures against Destruction are, for the time being, being handled by my master."

"Master?"

"Yes. 'Harun'."

"That's a name I've never heard."

"Ah. Yes. I'm told the current Beginning Wizard never crossed paths with him. My master is one of the Seven Magicians of the Magic Tower's 77th floor."

"The 77th floor. Aha."

Residue snapped his fingers as though it had come back to him.

"That one should be dead, though?"

"Well, my master didn't actually die; after Destruction's assault he drifted through the universe and ended up dwelling in another world, and after that he met me, and......"

"Mm. You can stop there."

Sensing that the story was about to drag on, Residue cut in at just the right moment.

"Anyway. So that's how he made his way back to the Magic Planet, and somehow you returned along with him. In that case, I take it the current 3rd Beginning Wizard is that fellow Harun?"

Peran couldn't answer easily.

For while Harun was undeniably a tremendous mage, he still hadn't recovered his original power.

"...Mm. That doesn't seem to be something for me to confirm."

Unable to disclose that fact in such a public setting, he ended up replying vaguely.

"Then this body will confirm it, fine. I hereby announce the 3rd Beginning Wizard. It's the man named Harun this fellow just mentioned. Take note of it."

"......"

Just like that, Residue had passed on the office of Beginning Wizard.

The Black Thorn Demon King, who had been watching quietly, let out a dry laugh.

"I don't know much about the Void Lords' system, but is it a position one can cast off so unilaterally?"

"It's different from the Ruler's."

The Black Thorn Demon King spoke, chin propped on one hand.

"...The Rulers, the Four Knights, the Twelve Void Lords. They make up most of the powerful gathered in this Summit Hall now. Residue, remnant thought of Lightning God. How did you arrive at the notion of facing the second Destruction without choosing a single one of them?"

"If you spout nonsense again, it won't be amusing."

Pale added it in a voice from which every trace of playfulness had drained.

Residue shrugged. He'd figured as much. A run-of-the-mill excuse wouldn't get him past this. But on this matter, Residue was serious too. About half of it, anyway.

"The Negotiator made me an offer. He asked to be the one to choose the five who would fight the second Destruction."

"That's a strange thing to say. Wasn't the Ticket the Negotiator's from the very start?"

"It was. But what he holds is nothing more than an admission pass. Who ultimately uses it is something only we can decide. Suppose the Negotiator showed up here and announced the five who would fight the second Destruction. Would you lot meekly fall in line?"

"Fair point."

"The Negotiator didn't want it revealed that he had handpicked the five. So he tried to use me as a Puppet."

Agolet's eyes narrowed to slits.

"If you're disclosing that, then Your Majesty turned down the Negotiator's offer."

"That's right. Truth be told, I did agonize over it for a good while. The terms he laid out were rather tempting."

"Terms?"

"The Destructions to come. He said he'd give me information on the third, the fourth, and the fifth Destructions. Their strengths and weaknesses, that sort of thing."

"And you refused that?"

The one who asked this time was Yang In-hyeon.

Residue turned that way and gave him a nod.

"I did."

"What was the reason? Were the five the Negotiator proposed such preposterous picks? So much so that there'd be no way to stop the second Destruction?"

"Not particularly. While we're at it, shall I tell you who the five he chose were?"

There was no clear answer, but every gaze converged on him, perhaps out of interest.

Residue spoke, unfolding one finger at a time.

"First, me. Then His Highness our Half King, who isn't present, the Blue Knight over there with that sour look, and Luca, perched on her knee like a doll. And lastly the Black Thorn Demon King. That makes five."

"......"

Silence again.

For one thing, several of them were puzzled. It was because the lineup the Negotiator had proposed wasn't all that preposterous. There was no telling how strong the second Destruction would be, but the roster included the Half King, their greatest power, along with one each from the Rulers and the Four Knights. However strong the foe, it wasn't a roster that would lose easily.

Those with sharper minds searched for some common thread among the chosen, but came up with nothing of note.

"Why did you refuse? Did you think the Negotiator would deceive you?"

The one who asked, in a familiar voice, was Retip. This one had been standing in the farthest corner of the Summit Hall, leaning against the wall; for all his bulk, he'd managed to keep himself well hidden until now.

Residue gave a smirk and said,

"That's one of the reasons, yes. But I doubt he has any intent to deceive. Destruction's assault, divided into five waves all told, can likewise be sorted into five kinds, and the various Destructions aren't exactly in league with one another. In fact, this body has even witnessed the first Destruction and the second Destruction fighting each other. In other words, reciting the weaknesses of the Destructions yet to come would scarcely count as betrayal from the standpoint of the second Destruction, the Negotiator."

But.

Residue wiped the smile from his face and said,

"Even if the Negotiator tells no lies, there's no law that everything he says is true."

Retip's head tilted slightly. It was the face of someone who hadn't quite grasped the meaning.

Agolet, on the other hand, caught the hidden sense at once.

"Do you mean the Negotiator may have known faulty information from the very start?"

"That's right. Or it may have been true at the time he gave the information, only to change afterward. To begin with, one mustn't try to understand the things called Destruction by our own logic."

His tone this time was rather heavy and grave, and so those seated in the Summit Hall fell briefly into thought.

Before they could reach any conclusion, Residue spoke again.

"So I gathered only the certain facts and worked out a guess. First, it's plain that the Destructions aren't allied, and beyond that, that they're hostile to one another. This is an already proven trait. And the Negotiator is trying to spirit several figures of the Unified World away to 'The Outside.' For what purpose, I wonder. You answer that, Black Thorn Demon King."

When Residue looked at the Black Thorn Demon King as he said it, the latter answered without long deliberation.

"...The assaults occurring simultaneously."

"......!"

A sound like someone drawing a sharp breath could be heard.

As ripples of commotion spread quietly, the Black Thorn Demon King went on in a flat, even voice.

"When the chosen five leave this place to fight the second Destruction out in 'The Outside.' The third Destruction descending upon the Unified World. For us it would be the worst of situations, but for that very reason it would be the enemy's finest tactic."

"That's right. For reference, this body puts the odds of that at no less than ninety percent."

Residue nodded and continued.

"Destruction does not strike all at once... ensuring that was the very reason Lukas crossed over to the far side, but, well. It's no longer something I can be certain of. Because there's no declaring that the Lukas of now is in his right mind."

"......"

"If that man, as Destruction's supreme commander, is wringing out every last effort toward the ruin of the Unified World, then he'll mobilize every means at his disposal. If the only concern in sending Destructions of differing kinds is Mutual Destruction, then it's a matter settled simply by dispatching each to a separate place. In other words, what we truly need to watch is not the second Destruction. It's the third Destruction that will descend upon the Unified World afterward."

Having finished his long speech, Residue slowly drew a breath.

And then, looking over those gathered in the Summit Hall, he said in a low voice,

"So we must conserve our strength as much as we can. We can't take along the powerful, the Four Knights or the Rulers and the like."

"There's a flaw in that argument."

said the Black Thorn Demon King.

"The second Destruction is surely no less formidable a foe than the third. What's more, we would be fighting in 'The Outside', which is their domain. If anything, the risk may run higher than with the third Destruction. It's plain that if the second Destruction, too, isn't stopped, it will bring down the Unified World. In such a situation, is hoarding our strength truly the right choice? Everything you've said falls, in the end, within the realm of conjecture. Shouldn't we first throw everything into defeating the second Destruction, and worry about the rest afterward?"

"......"

Residue looked at the Black Thorn Demon King with a strange expression.

He hadn't expected it. That of all those in the Summit Hall, the one to voice his opinions most actively would be the Black Thorn Demon King. He wasn't simply contradicting Residue's words. For what the Black Thorn Demon King's voice carried was not malice, but reasoning.

"Everything you say is correct. Which is why I'll have to give particular care to the members who go out. Nor do I intend to choose them by raw force alone."

"Isn't it about time you revealed who they are?"

"Let's, then. Shall I announce the first one to start?"

Residue pointed boldly at himself.

"This body, of course."

This was something everyone had anticipated from the moment he set down the office of Beginning Wizard, so there was no commotion.

Residue went on,

"The second is... right over there."

As he pointed openly, heads swiveled around to follow the direction his finger indicated.

The woman who had, in an instant, claimed the whole room's attention spoke with a startled face.

"Me?"

"That's right. Iris PeaceFinder, you're the second."

"......"

Iris's face was as flustered as her voice, and then she wore an ambiguous expression, impossible to tell whether glad or sorrowful. It was the face of someone who couldn't quite make out her own inner self either.

"Come here, Black Witch."

"Don't call me that."

"Iris, then?"

"And don't call me that the way Lukas does, either."

"Fine, Miss PeaceFinder. Just hurry up and come over. The people are waiting."

"......"

Iris heaved a sigh, her face like she'd bitten into a bug, then came trudging over. She looked for all the world like livestock being dragged to the slaughterhouse.

Standing alongside him, Iris shot him a sidelong glance.

"Why me?"

"Because your ability is exceedingly valuable."

"That's no answer."

"I'll explain later, so stay quiet."

Iris pressed hard at her temple and at last fell silent.

Residue looked at Iris standing in line beside him and nodded with satisfaction.

"Now, from the third onward......"

"A moment."

A weighty voice suddenly cut in.

Though his words had been broken off, Residue put on no particularly displeased look. If anything, he looked intrigued.

"Might I say a word before that?"

"Death's Black Knight. I'd thought you were dragged into this summit by the Half King's command against your will, was I mistaken? If you mean to offer an opinion, you're welcome to."

"My thanks."

The Black Knight Lucid expressed his gratitude evenly, then looked Residue straight in the eye and said,

"Residue, was it. Include me among the five you select."

"Hm. I take back what I just said. You weren't paying attention to the summit, were you?"

"I heard all of it. Including your saying you wouldn't bring in the Four Knights."

"And yet you ask to be brought in regardless?"

Lucid nodded.

Seeing this, Residue shook his head.

"In that case, let me make it perfectly clear while I'm at it. There are no exceptions to the rule."

"It would not be an exception."

"What do you mean?"

Lucid slowly opened his mouth.

"I will resign the position of Black Knight."

*****

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