Chapter 402

Ophelia’s lab had the same atmosphere as always.

So, on one side, drugs were being cultivated, and on the other side, all sorts of internal organs of various creatures were displayed. On the table, little Isabella was… wait, what is that?

“Hyek… hyeeek…! I will definitely… aaah! Definitely kill… heeuk! I will kill you…!”

Little Isabella’s condition was completely different from usual.

From her head to her upper body, she was in the usual human form, but below her waist, she had the body of an insect resembling an ant.

Moreover, from her abdomen, she was continuously laying pale eggs without rest.

Every time an egg popped out, her eyes rolled back, and it seemed like she was experiencing extreme pain due to the heightened sensitivity.

“…What is this?”

Surely, the story she wanted to tell me wasn’t about showing me this, right?

It’s satisfying but a bit gross.

“Ah, don’t worry about that. I temporarily restored her reproductive ability to breed and experimented to see what kind of offspring would be born and if her powers could be restored.”

Ophelia nonchalantly brushed her hair and used tweezers to transfer the eggs Isabella laid into small glass tubes.

“Restoring her powers? That sounds like a dangerous experiment.”

The reason I could defeat Isabella was because I had a means to counter her powers.

In other words, if her powers were restored without such means, who knows what kind of disaster could happen.

“I understand what you mean, but there’s no need to worry. The probability of her powers being restored was only about 1%, and if there was even a slight magical reaction, I would have made her self-destruct immediately. The experiment itself is already over, and what you see now is just left there until disposal.”

“I see. That’s a relief. Still, I hope you’ll be more careful in the future. Just in case.”

I’ve seen people argue that a 1% chance is worth taking more than once or twice.

“Alright. As a hired hand, I should follow the words of the one who pays me. I’ll refrain from conducting overly dangerous research.”

Ophelia nodded more readily than I expected.

Though her mention of being hired was half in jest, since she said she would restrain herself, she probably won’t break that promise.

—

“So, if you didn’t call me to show me that, why did you call me?”

I leaned against a table in the lab, whistling mockingly to the rhythm of Isabella’s labor pains.

Isabella seemed to have a lot of curses she wanted to throw, but every time she opened her mouth, her ovipositor opened too, leaving her too busy screaming to curse.

It’s about magic related to me…

I have some idea.

“That thing on your wrist. The mark. You said you got it in some dungeon before, right?”

Ophelia pointed at my wrist with a magic wand, her eyes sparkling.

So it was about this mark after all.

Among my equipment and abilities, this is the only one deeply related to magic.

I don’t know the proper way to use it, so I forcibly activate it using martial energy instead of magic—the mark of fire.

Perhaps because of the martial energy, the flame’s color is dark red, and once ignited, it doesn’t extinguish naturally, making it quite useful.

“Yeah. I got it in a dungeon deep in the Karmaine Forest, in a place presumed to be an ancient temple. Lacey said it’s related to an old god named Alphedor… but I don’t know the details.”

“Alphedor… Alphedor… I haven’t heard that name before. What kind of god is that?”

Ophelia also seemed unfamiliar with the name Alphedor.

I’m not sure if she doesn’t know about the Ancient God Faith or if she knows the name differently.

“They say it’s a war god worshipped by the ancient Dane people, possibly the same god as the ancient god Wodanaz.”

I’m more inclined to believe they are the same god.

“Ah. An ancient god, huh? Did the Dane people call it that…?”

Ophelia nodded as if she understood.

It seems she was aware of the concept of ancient gods.

“…Well, it doesn’t matter. What the ancients called their gods isn’t important. Let’s get back to the point. About that mark, you said there were three others besides that one, right?”

“Yeah.”

One of the marks was already empty when I found it, probably used by that undead knight, and the other two were likely buried and destroyed when the dungeon collapsed.

“Then, do you think those four were all there were?”

Ophelia approached me, grabbed my arm, and gently stroked the mark on my wrist, smiling.

“…Well, I don’t know.”

It doesn’t seem like there would be more such strange ruins.

If similar ruins were found elsewhere, there would have been a big commotion by now.

“Is that so? I think I know. Considering the recent noble assassin incident, the Dane mage corps you mentioned, and… the documents I personally looked into to understand the nature of that mark, there’s only one answer.”

Ophelia smirked, let go of my wrist, took a few steps back, and sat down holding a chair.

“In my opinion, it’s just that their magic system is different from ours, but it’s already a completed form of magical artifact.”

She looked at my mark with her rainbow-colored gem-like eyes and drew a similar mark in the air with her magic wand.

It was probably just a playful gesture since no flames erupted or anything.

“At the time, it was probably a commonly used technology. It’s too efficient and complete to be a technique limited to a single ruin. So… it’s unlikely that such artifacts exist only in that one ruin, right?”

By now, I could understand what she was getting at.

The mark of fire engraved on me.

Given the special circumstances under which I obtained it, I thought it was a unique privilege available only there… but according to Ophelia’s reasoning, the opposite was more likely.

“So I’ve been investigating the history before Carolus’s time… and the rumor that Dane is training thousands of mages gave me a clue. It’s impossible by common sense. Magic is a discipline that one cannot even begin without talent, and even if you gathered all the magic-sensitive people in the world, you couldn’t reach thousands.”

“So, the method Dane used to train mages is…”

“Right. It’s probably similar to your method. Somehow, they figured out how to artificially engrave those marks.”

Ophelia deeply inhaled the smoke from her magic wand and exhaled.

The conversation had taken a more serious turn than expected, so I stopped whistling mockingly at Isabella and lit a cigarette to calm my unease.

“Of course, there must be some restrictions I’m unaware of. If they could mass-produce people capable of using magic at your level without any limitations, they would have already invaded the Empire or Ka’har by now. Considering how quickly the assassin in the capital was subdued, even if it’s the same method as yours, the power might be much weaker. If only we could secure the assassin’s body, we might have gotten more detailed information…”

So even if it’s the same mark, the power might differ.

After all, a thousand magic warriors using Up-hwa could turn the Empire into a sea of fire.

The fact that they resorted to a tripartite alliance instead suggests that this mark magic also has some constraints.

It might be difficult to increase its power… or there might be a limit to the number of mages they can train.

“Still, considering the information we just got, we can form a hypothesis. You said there was a skull floating in an incredibly dense pool of blood, right? And you found the mark in what was presumed to be an ancient god’s ruin. So… perhaps, to increase its power, human sacrifices are needed?”

“…Human sacrifices?”

That’s a word that’s not just unsettling but downright chilling.

“Right. The ancient god Wodanaz preferred human sacrifices. Your mark might have been created by sacrificing hundreds of people… something like that would make sense.”

So, the mark on my wrist now was created by killing hundreds of people.

Honestly, it’s a chilling thought.

After gaining the power of martial energy by killing over a thousand people, now it’s the power of magic created by sacrificing hundreds.

“Anyway, you said you don’t know how to properly use that mark, right? That you don’t know the activation word. But I heard that the assassin who was recently killed muttered some strange incantation? If that was the activation word for the mark, it means the Dane people have knowledge about it. So, if we capture a Dane magic warrior who uses fire magic, we might be able to extract the usage method.”

“That’s… definitely useful information. Though I can’t look into it right now.”

I have to leave for the Holy Kingdom now.

Who knows when I’ll return to the Empire.

“Right. Oh, and just in case, I advise you not to use that power in the Holy Kingdom. Even though you’re activating it through a different means than magic, it’s likely fundamentally related to an ancient god, right? If someone figures out the nature of that power, it could cause big trouble.”

“Alright, thanks for the advice.”

I didn’t mention my mark to Lacey, just in case, and it’s a good thing I didn’t.

If this mark truly is a power obtained by sacrificing humans to an ancient god, just having it could easily brand me a heretic.

Given how close Lacey and I have become, she probably wouldn’t try to burn me at the stake, but she might at least try to cut the skin off my wrist.

—

After finishing my conversation with Ophelia, I left a message for Damien and Milia, who were busy preparing, to meet me in front of the cathedral by noon tomorrow, and returned to the professor’s residence with Rana.

I needed to inform Nigel and Leonor about the trip to the Holy Kingdom.

Coincidentally, Leonor had also just returned from a monster subjugation mission.

“…So, a few corpse puppets appeared, but aside from one undead knight, there wasn’t much of a threat. There were some injuries, but no fatalities among the members.”

“No fatalities? That’s a relief.”

Dealing with corpse puppet monsters isn’t easy.

Thanks to Leonor’s hard work, but it seems the Rose Cross Knight Order members are more skilled than I thought.

Afterward, I explained the upcoming schedule to Leonor and Nigel, who had changed into indoor clothes after washing up.

Leonor showed some reluctance about going to the Holy Kingdom but said she would follow if it was what I wanted.

“The purification inside the Holy Kingdom… Just like the southern incident, it seems we’re taking on quite a troublesome task. I’ve thought this before, but it seems like all the difficult tasks in the world are being piled onto you. Even with ten bodies, it wouldn’t be enough.”

“Tell me about it… What can I do? There’s not a single person stronger than me in the Empire. So, I have to handle it.”

I sighed and responded to Leonor’s words, and Nigel, who was listening, praised me as a model knight, mixing in some comfort.

Unlike Leonor, Nigel had no major complaints about the trip to the Holy Kingdom.

Though he was worried about being too far from Landenburg, he said protecting Landenburg’s successor was just as important as protecting Landenburg itself.

Unlike before, when he would head east at the slightest incident, he now seemed determined to act strictly as my bodyguard.

—

The next morning.

Rana, Nigel, Leonor, and I headed to the cathedral by carriage.

We spent time discussing future plans with Lacey, who was waiting for us, and by noon, Damien and Milia arrived, completing all preparations.

It was time to head to the Holy Kingdom.

Thus, three carriages passed through the capital’s gates and began moving west.

Lacey, Bels, Liliez.

Me, Leonor, Nigel, Damien, Milia, Rana.

Though the number was only nine, with six master-level experts and me included, we had enough strength to turn any ordinary enemy into mincemeat.