Chapter 232

Chapter 232 - Your Secret Spell, My Secret Spell

A prisoner from Wisdom was aboard Millesdusk’s Black Ship.

Three Wisdom mages had boarded it, but now only one prisoner remained.

Tolan Blue Wisdom, a collateral-branch member of Wisdom, lamented his own situation, but lamenting it would not change anything.

“So…. What should I call you…?”

“The same. Prince. What I see, the main body sees as well, so nothing changes.”

Inside a private cabin on Millesdusk’s Black Ship, Tolan and the Clone Son stood facing each other.

The confusion Tolan had first experienced had gradually lessened with time.

The Fifth Son had clearly decided to remain at the Imperial Palace, yet when Tolan came from Eclipse to the boundary, the Fifth Son appeared.

He had not teleported here from the Empire, and yet the Fifth Son was truly before his eyes.

But he understood that this was a Clone, and that his execution date had not been postponed.

“…I have to teach you the Pursuers’ secret spell.”

“Yes. Nothing changes.”

The Youngest Son checked the wall clock.

“Once you teach me, I have to go to my students as well, so begin when you are ready.”

“Y-yes.”

For a moment, Tolan wondered who the students were, but that did not matter at all.

Right now, this was the moment that would decide whether his life would be prolonged or ended. It was the crossroads between death and survival.

“The Pursuers’ magic consists of Tracking Magic.”

“Is that the foundation?”

“It is the foundation, but once you learn the secret spell, it is not especially necessary. Are you interested?”

“If it is not especially necessary, I will learn it in my spare time. For now, only the main point.”

Tolan nodded and quickly grasped the personality of the man who held his lifeline.

He disliked waiting, disliked stalling, and wanted everything done quickly.

Tolan did not know how someone with such an impatient nature had succeeded in so many great undertakings, but he kept that question to himself.

In any case.

“The Pursuers’ secret spell is called ‘Bloodhound.’ It is a technique that tracks the target with a single drop of blood. One single drop.”

The Clone listened to Tolan while checking the main body’s reaction.

Because of the distance, he could not know every single grain of the main body’s exact inner thoughts, but he could vividly feel a simple mood.

The Clone put that mood into words.

“Interesting.”

“Given your bloodline, my prince, I thought you would certainly find it so.”

Tolan rubbed his hands together and smiled what one might call an affable smile.

Of course, on the inside, he was sweating nervously. The Clone Son nodded moderately and spoke.

“So how do you track someone with a single drop of blood?”

“Before that, I heard you are a Magic Assimilator of blood, my prince.”

“Yes.”

The Clone Son formed a stream of blood over his palm.

The stream of blood soon rippled and surged on its own, chasing its own tail.

Even as it did so, the stream of blood continued to curve in a circle, indirectly displaying his mana control.

Tolan was briefly at a loss for words.

‘I heard that the blood relatives of Millesdusk had rough and crude mana control. So that was all a lie too.’

The longer he stayed on this Black Ship, the more he began to doubt each of the things his family had said.

They were truly irreverent thoughts.

“What are you thinking about?”

“N-nothing.”

However, even taking time for that was a luxury right now. Tolan continued speaking.

“I meant that since you are a Magic Assimilator of blood, you will be able to understand my words more easily.”

“You have a roundabout way of saying your explanation will be lacking.”

“Ha, hahaha….”

Tolan laughed awkwardly.

He was not the only one who had to rely on the genius of geniuses with only insufficient explanations.

The Clone Son gave a bitter laugh inwardly, then opened his mouth.

“I did not expect you to personally demonstrate it. Explain.”

“Yes, yes. Then, first….”

Tolan raised his index finger.

SLASH—

A blade of wind created through Wind-Attribute Magic sliced across the tip of his index finger.

A single drop of blood welled up from the finger, which had been cut as thinly as though by paper.

“Will you accept this?”

“I will.”

The Clone Son easily drew over the drop of blood on Tolan’s index finger.

He filled it with his own mana and lightly seized control of it. The blood droplet flew between his pale fingers.

Tolan watched the sight with curious eyes. No matter how old he was, the scholar who had once pursued knowledge in the Magic Tower had not gone anywhere.

“Since you are seizing the blood with mana, the next step will be easier.”

“If it is useful, I will not kill you, so there is no need to drag this out.”

“O-of course.”

Tolan brought his hands together and moved his mana to begin forming a certain magic circle.

It creaked and shook bit by bit, making it look unstable, but somehow he managed to reach its construction.

“This is the Bloodhound magic circle. Since you can perform Samche, you should be able to see the Runes, structural equations, and formulas to some extent.”

“Yes.”

Because Bloodhound used the liquid called blood, it had borrowed quite a lot from the Water Attribute.

That was good news for a student of the Blood Nobles.

SLLLRK—

Leaving Tolan’s blood droplet aside for a moment, he built up a magic circle identical in shape to the one Tolan had made.

The material was blood, and before long, a red magic circle took form.

“…Are you truly a blood relative of the East? Even if it belongs to the Pursuers, it is still a secret spell. How can you do this all at once…?”

“After doing it enough, I have grown used to it. Wisdom is actually easy.”

Wisdom had a basic structure.

Everything they called the Wisdom of a Thousand Years followed that basic structure.

If something did not, Wisdom treated it as heresy and would not even look at it.

Then they secretly researched it in the shadows and repeatedly stabilized it. Once that stabilization ended, their method was to bring it into the light as if nothing had happened.

“Even if it deviates greatly within the circle called the basic structure, it is only an extra arm or an extra leg. Once I understand it once, the rest is easy.”

“N-no matter how true that may be….”

“You even forced the Magic of the Ice Dragon to fit this basic structure. To do so, you attached countless unnecessary additions. I understood that before moving on.”

Wisdom’s basic structure was like the towers they loved.

“The more difficult the magic, the more mana, which serves as the internal material, is invested to lay the foundation. After that, you build the framework with Runes and handle the details with formulas, do you not?”

“Th-that is true, but….”

Those words were not the truth.

He had summarized the middle process far too much, and if the scholars of the Magic Tower had heard it, they would have foamed at the mouth.

If one said the process of breathing consisted only of inhaling air and exhaling it, it would not be wrong, but it would not be entirely right either.

Holding the Bloodhound magic circle and the blood droplet in each hand, he jerked his chin toward Tolan.

“Is it finished now?”

“Yes, yes. That is correct. Now, if you drop the blood droplet into the center of the magic circle, the preparation is complete.”

PLOP—

Ordinary magic circles were intangible, so if it was a liquid, it should have passed straight through.

But the Bloodhound magic circle absorbed the blood in an instant, like a vampire.

“Now, no matter where I am on the Black Ship, you should be able to pursue me until the blood contained within the magic circle disappears.”

“How long does one drop of blood last?”

“It depends on the mage, but… I heard the longest time in history was thirty minutes.”

“I understand.”

The Clone Son nodded and dispersed the magic circle.

Then a faint silence flowed.

“…Am I alive?”

“If you dislike that, I will kill you.”

“N-no…! Thank you! Thank you!”

Tolan sprang up and bowed his head again and again.

“Enough. Do not do anything stupid.”

“Pardon…?”

The Clone Son left his seat and continued speaking.

“The main body knows. He knows that your Family Head can enter another person’s dream and converse with them in various ways.”

“…!”

Tolan’s eyes doubled in size. By contrast, the Clone Son remained as calm as ever, and the rise and fall of his voice did not change.

He merely gave a quiet warning.

“Our direction of advance, the operation you heard by word of mouth. You are free to tell the Family Head of Wisdom, but if you are discovered….”

Eyes as bloodshot as the Youngest Son’s gazed steadily at Tolan.

“I will leave what comes after to your imagination.”

“O-of course…. Why would I do something like that now?”

“I hope so. Whatever you imagine, Millesdusk will repay you beyond it.”

Tolan swallowed dryly, and after the Clone Son left, he was the only one remaining.

Soon, he walked unsteadily like a man drained of all strength and arrived at the small private cabin that had been prepared for him.

Since this morning, he had felt something faintly tickling his mana.

It was a signal sent from his homeland, now very far even from this place.

***

The Wisdom blood relatives arrived near the Tower of the Sky.

Floating castles were connected at regular intervals in the sky.

The blood relatives’ ships settled on the Sky Island that managed this place, the Tower at the West’s foremost boundary.

“First Daughter, Second Daughter, Third Son. Welcome to the Sky Island.”

“Yes.”

First Daughter Cos lightly passed by the Master of the Tower of the Sky, who had come out with his subordinates to greet them.

No one knew where she was going after passing him, but even if someone asked, she was not the sort to answer, and there was no one willing to ask.

Usually, the ones left behind her were the blood relatives who took care of the subordinates she had abandoned.

“Master of the Tower of the Sky! How long has it been?”

Pia waved cheerfully and approached the middle-aged mage whose white hair showed his age.

“It has been the first time since I taught you the theory of Wind-Attribute Magic, Princess, so it has been nearly ten years.”

“I am sorry to come here under circumstances like this.”

“Not at all. Situations like this are the only time blood relatives come all the way to a frontier like this. Rather, I had hoped I would not have to meet you here.”

The Master of the Tower of the Sky smiled bitterly, then bowed to the Third Son as well.

“It has been a long time since I last saw you as well, Prince Ryan. No one here blames you, so please be at ease.”

“Millesdusk is coming. We should not be at ease.”

“That is the same for us as well. First, I would like to explain the situation here.”

“Good. Let us move somewhere else.”

At the Second Daughter’s words, the Master of the Tower of the Sky nodded.

This place was a floating island above the clouds, and the wind was extremely strong.

Although magic was offsetting it to a certain extent, a comfortable conversation was difficult.

“We have prepared a Wind Carriage.”

“This brings back memories too.”

This carriage, which moved only on the Sky Island, floated in the air just like the island itself.

It was a carriage that moved far more smoothly and far faster than an ordinary carriage, but there were no horses.

Using the wind as its horses’ hooves, the Wind Carriage flew low and advanced to the center of the island.

At the center stood a tower.

A tower was a structure inseparable from Wisdom and could be found anywhere, but even among them, this place was important.

“The Sky Mages have all been placed on standby. There are five hundred in total, all 5th Circle or above.”

“And the Mana Cannons deployed in the Tower of the Sky?”

“They are being maintained in perfect condition.”

“Good, good.”

In the First Daughter’s absence, the Second Daughter listened to the Master of the Tower of the Sky’s report.

Having been chosen as the vanguard captain from the beginning, she handled the work familiarly.

The Master of the Tower of the Sky also treated her as his superior with familiarity and continued consulting with her alongside the Third Son.

“Third Son. Has the family confirmed dragon support?”

“Nothing has been confirmed yet. For a dragon to move with certainty, someone other than the two of us must step forward.”

The Master of the Tower of the Sky let out a sigh without realizing it.

Even after crossing off everything they had to do, there was one thing they absolutely could not erase.

As expected, that one thing was the problem.

“What should we do?”

“If we have a dragon, it is unconditionally good. We cannot allow them to drink a toast to victory from their first advance.”

“Then I will speak to Big Sister.”

“…….”

The Master of the Tower of the Sky and the Third Son wanted to say something, anything, whether comfort or encouragement, but their mouths did not open easily.

The eldest, whose talent touched the sky, and the second, whose talent stood close to it.

The Family Head had not been disappointed in the second, but neither had he been satisfied, and Pia had lived her entire life that way.

The younger sister went to find her greedy older sister, who had monopolized even the praise that should have come to her.

“Big Sister Cos.”

“Pia? What is it?”

Her elder sister waved with a smile. Her smile, bright because she was purely glad to see her and had no other meaning, was radiant.

She was wearing glasses and fiddling with something.

“What is that?”

“This is… a new hobby. It is nothing special.”

Cos quickly hid the cube behind her subspace.

“You really have so many hobbies, Big Sister. Magic is one of them too, is it not?”

“Yes. It is my favorite hobby.”

At her answer, the listener’s heart was torn into dozens of pieces.

Something to which she had devoted her entire life was merely a hobby to someone else.

And that someone else was better at that remaining hobby than anyone, so the corners of Pia’s mouth could not possibly rise.

But right now, she erased even those feelings and continued speaking.

“Then what about this war? Is today’s war also your hobby, Big Sister?”

“…No. This is not fun.”

Pia nodded.

“I feel the same way. So, to make it end quickly so we can return, will you help us?”

“How?”

The second younger sister approached her elder sister and held both her hands.

“Please call the Wind Dragon to the Sky Island.”