Chapter 582: The Thing Called the Karma Seat (3)

Around the time Seollang and Rine were awkwardly staring into each other’s eyes—

“......”

Alon, who had been looking at the mages beyond the wall Heinkel was showing him, slowly recalled what had happened quite a while ago.

‘Back then...... how far had things progressed again?’

Trying to remember events that already felt distant, he retraced the past.

‘Penia agreed that blessings should not be handed out too easily to the Mage Tower’s mages, but distributed little by little...... and after I gave Lady Heinkel a blessing, didn’t Lady Heinkel tell everyone to wait after that?’

Recalling the previous conversation, Alon opened his mouth while looking at Heinkel.

“Lady Heinkel.”

“Hmm? What is it?”

“When we last met, did you not say that since you would help, we should delay the timing of distributing blessings?”

At Alon’s question, Heinkel nodded.

“Right, I did say that.”

Soon after, she scratched her head with a slightly awkward expression.

“But the reason things turned out like that is because I helped......”

“Because you helped?”

“Yeah. I told you earlier, didn’t I? About receiving a body from the Magic King.”

“Ah, that—”

“Right. Part of that was to pass the mages’ faith onto you, but another part was also intended to make them become even more obsessed with blessings.”

“......Ah.”

“Exactly. There probably are not any mages left who deny that you’re a god, but once they see you create new life itself, it feels different to mages.”

Well, I didn’t expect them to become that obsessed though— muttered Heinkel as she looked toward the entrance of the old library, where mages far too old to be acting this way were currently grabbing each other by the hair.

“Umm—”

Penia, who had been watching that scene from the side, hesitated briefly before speaking.

“Lord Alon.”

“What is it?”

“I do have an idea. Would you mind hearing it out?”

“What kind of idea?”

“Well—”

Once Alon gave permission, Penia immediately began explaining.

After listening to her for a while, Alon spoke.

“So, you’re saying we should send the mages to Divine Land?”

“Exactly. We send them to Divine Land and make them perform ‘service’ work for a certain period of time. And while they’re there, it would be nice if we also received offerings— no, tributes.”

“Hmm—”

At Penia’s words, Alon stroked his chin.

It certainly was not a bad proposal.

After all, it was undeniably much more convenient to entrust things collectively to Blackie rather than personally distributing everything one by one himself.

‘And Divine Land has apparently been busy lately because of reconstruction as well......’

Forget the tributes for the moment— fundamentally, mages were an outstanding labor force anywhere, starting from construction work.

In other words, if they followed Penia’s suggestion, not only would the divine power accumulating around Alon increase even further, but they would also gain labor.

......And in addition, there was the extremely attractive possibility that the manifested body created from the Divine blood believing in Alon might be restored even slightly closer to a human form.

As Alon nodded—

“That does seem worthwhile. In any case, from now on we no longer need that many ordinary mages.”

“......Is that so?”

“Yeah. Before, we brute-forced the unraveling of magic through sheer calculation, but now there are more and more problems that require proper thought to unravel. And that means approaching them while possessing knowledge closer to that of True Mages.”

Heinkel continued.

“Anyway, what we need now are True Mages rather than ordinary mages. So if the mages receive blessings and return, the speed at which magic is unraveled will increase again.”

“What will you do, Lord Alon?”

After Heinkel finished speaking, Penia asked immediately afterward.

Alon considered it briefly, then—

“Blackie, would this be alright?”

[Kyuu-]

Blackie popped out over his pocket and nodded as though it saw no issue whatsoever.

After seeing that, Alon did not deliberate long.

“It does not sound bad. However— if I remember correctly, we previously said we would select several people first. Is it truly alright to change the method like this?”

Even while reaching his conclusion, Alon voiced his concern carefully.

However—

“Please don’t worry about that part. I’ll explain things properly.”

“......Then I’ll leave it to you.”

At Penia’s following words, Alon nodded.

####

Approximately two weeks had passed since Alon arrived at the Mage Tower.

And during those two weeks, the Mage Tower underwent enormous changes.

The first of those changes was that the number of mages remaining in the Central Mage Tower had decreased to an absurd extent.

Visibly so.

That was because the mages of the Central Mage Tower had all departed for Divine Land one week and six days ago.

......Though in truth, calling it a trip made it sound far more elegant than it really was. They were closer to a swarm of greedy locusts.

In any case, perhaps Penia’s explanation had worked too well, because the moment they heard her words, most of the mages immediately rushed toward Divine Land.

As a result, there were currently no mages left in the Central Mage Tower.

Or rather, even if there were any, they were only first-tier and second-tier mages responsible for handling support duties for the others, desperately holding back tears while suppressing their urge to run toward Divine Land themselves as they maintained the tower’s security.

......Of course, considering that the Mage Tower’s security was normally handled by mages above the fourth tier, the first-tier and second-tier mages had essentially just been stuck with all the grunt work, making them look perpetually depressed.

Anyway, that was the first major change °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° to occur within the Mage Tower.

And the second change was that the Mage Tower had become completely empty.

Yes, literally.

The current Mage Tower was utterly barren.

Not simply because the mages were gone.

Rather, every valuable item inside the Central Mage Tower— beginning with its countless precious alchemical ingredients and rare materials— had completely vanished.

Thanks to Penia subtly spreading remarks such as:

“The Magic King is fair to everyone equally. Fair to those who worked harder, and equally fair to those who demonstrate even greater ‘effort’ as well—”

—the mages had carried off absolutely everything they owned.

And amidst all that, Alon was learning the five spells that had been fully deciphered thus far from Heinkel.

“Whew—”

Alon let out a breath as Reverse Heavens came to an end.

As he collapsed onto the spot as though exhausted, Heinkel opened her mouth with a slightly surprised look.

“......You’re incredible.”

“Suddenly......?”

“No, seriously— you learned all five spells within two weeks.”

What Heinkel said was true.

Two weeks.

Within fourteen days, Alon had learned every spell Heinkel taught him.

Compared to the speed at which he previously learned magic, it was several times faster.

Fourteen days itself could not necessarily be called a short amount of time.

However, it was absolutely not an appropriate amount of time for learning magic like this.

So Heinkel spoke with an expression that suggested she genuinely could not understand it.

“You haven’t completely mastered them though, have you? You still make mistakes.”

“I know that, but even reaching this level is already absurd. Last time it took you over a month just to learn one spell.”

“......Well, that is not exactly wrong.”

Certainly, things had improved compared to before.

As Alon nodded—

“......How is this even possible?”

Heinkel muttered with a strange expression.

“Is it really that surprising that I learned five spells this quickly?”

Alon asked.

To him, the magic Heinkel taught was naturally easier to learn.

After all, the current spells she was teaching had already been completely deciphered by an enormous number of mages working together specifically so he could learn them more easily.

However, unlike Alon’s thoughts, Heinkel merely stared at him with a thoughtful expression.

Soon, as though deciding against saying whatever had crossed her mind, she shook her head.

“We’ll discuss this later. More importantly, are you planning to leave immediately now?”

“......Ah, yes. I have business in Rosario.”

“Hm— alright, understood. But could you leave Penia behind for a bit?”

“Penia?”

“Yeah. There’s something I want to ask her. Or rather, how about waiting one more day before leaving? There’s something I want to ask Penia.”

At Heinkel’s question, Alon tilted his head slightly.

Still—

“Understood. One day is hardly a problem—”

Soon, he nodded in agreement.

####

Right after asking Alon to send Penia over—

“Hm—”

Left alone inside the old library, Heinkel stroked her chin with a subtle expression.

‘......Something, something feels strange.’

What she was thinking about was Alon himself.

Of course, it was not Alon’s existence that she found strange.

Rather, what she found strange was Alon’s ability to learn magic.

‘What is this......?’

Heinkel was an exceptional mage.

Because of that, she could roughly grasp the state of Alon’s knowledge in one sense or another.

And as far as she knew, Alon should not have been capable of learning magic this quickly.

It was not that she was underestimating him.

She was simply speaking about what should realistically have been impossible.

The speed at which he was learning magic now was practically—

‘......It’s almost like he’s retracing magic he already knows......’

If so, was Alon lying to Heinkel?

No, that could not be it.

“......”

In truth, that was not her only question.

‘......It’s definitely being controlled.’

She had not mentioned it to Alon.

However, Heinkel had vaguely sensed that some kind of restriction had been placed upon a certain “emotion” of his.

Part of the reason she noticed it was because she had regained her original body and now possessed proper magical power once again.

But strictly speaking, it was because Alon’s “restriction” itself had grown stronger.

Strong enough that if Heinkel intentionally focused on examining him, she could sense it.

Yet despite recognizing that fact, the reason she had deliberately chosen not to tell Alon was because the matter itself was too ambiguous.

If the restriction placed upon him had been harmful, she would have told him immediately.

In fact, until midway through, she had intended to speak to Alon about the emotional restriction.

Yes— at least until she saw that.

“......”

Heinkel recalled what she had seen in that moment.

That power, which fluctuated excessively even under the claim that it merely restricted ordinary emotions.

“Whew—”

While she remained lost in thought, the doors of the old library slowly creaked open.

“Um, did you call for me?”

The one who entered through the library doors was Penia.

Looking at Penia— who had entered somewhat cautiously with a clear ‘Why did she call me?’ expression— Heinkel soon pushed the subject of Alon aside.

Alon was important, yes.

But at this moment, what truly mattered to Heinkel was Penia.

“Ahem—”

As though organizing her thoughts, Heinkel cleared her throat.

“Penia.”

“Yes?”

“Could you show me Origin one more time?”

Soon, she made her request.

To show her once again the Origin she had displayed several days ago.

“......Ah, right now?”

Penia looked slightly flustered.

However, Heinkel calmly nodded.

“It isn’t difficult, but here?”

“Yeah. Don’t suppress it like last time. Show it exactly as it is.”

“......Exactly as it is?”

“Mm. Don’t worry about the aftermath.”

Although Penia showed visible confusion at Heinkel’s words, she still nodded and began manifesting her Origin.

And then, at the moment Penia’s Origin fully manifested once more—

“......As expected.”

Heinkel quietly—

and helplessly—

murmured.

......As expected, she had not been mistaken several days ago.

Penia’s Origin—

‘It’s the magic I was searching for......’

—it truly was the magic Heinkel had been searching for.

The magic she had spent hundreds of years in hibernation trying to find.

......That very magic.