“This is everything I know about the Divine King.” Having finished her tale, the mystic cast her eyes down, as if in mourning.
“Hmm…interesting. And after that, the first brood event occurred from the Epicenter the Divine King generated?”
I had already come across a plethora of new vocabulary since arriving here. And some long-standing questions had also been answered.
The library from the age of gods…placed in the care of a true elf, one of whom is sitting before us. So, it really existed…
Sedam was looking up at the ceiling, like he’d reached his maximum capacity for wonder. I’d heard once that before he was born, his father, a scholar, had been trying to prove the existence of Qadr Brueys. Most believed the library to be a fable. To be honest, I was excited, too.
If we knew the contents of the two books in the library of the age of gods, we would be able to determine the true reason why the Divine King had become an Epicenter. That might tell us how to completely rid this world of daemons forever.
But then again…
“Oracle, you must know where the library and books reside.”
“Yes. Although I am admittedly merely a vestige of the first generation’s magic. My knowledge and my powers are nowhere near the heights of the first generation.”
“That can’t be helped,” said one of the elders quickly. “And for it, you bear no shame.”
“The mystic has led the warrior clan and protected this world from daemons for five hundred years.” The elders were quick to speak in defense of the mystic, whose eyes were downcast yet again. Naturally, they looked accusingly at us, so I swiftly decided to apologize.
“As I mentioned before, you’re not the one who has anything to be sorry about. Rather, it is we who should apologize for our frankness.”
“Hardly…”
“You have shared your secrets with us, so I would also like to share what I know. Perhaps if we combine my knowledge with the knowledge of the warrior clan, we can discover some new truths.”
I corrected my posture and began my story. Although it did seem like we would have no choice but to find a way to go to Qadr Brueys in the end.
(If this was an RPG, there wouldn’t be any doubt about it. We were definitely going. That place had “plot-critical dungeon” written all over it.)
Before we went, we naturally needed to get as close to the truth as possible. The warrior clan and the mystic kept their promise and provided us with all their information without hiding anything. In that case, I needed to lay my own cards on the table.
That meant coming clean about the Watcher, explaining the Gate of Magic, and revealing that I’d come from a different world.
“It’s a long story,” I said. “I’ll try to give you the short version.”
“Please tell us.”
I couldn’t help sounding a bit defensive from the beginning. The elf maiden cocked her head to the side and smiled as she listened calmly.
“I’ve been lying about this to everyone, but the truth is that I am not from this world. One day, I met someone called a Watcher, who transported me to this world. To put it bluntly: I’m a being from another planet.”
No one responded.
There was a possibility that they’d suddenly disdain me as something strange and foreign. An unknowable Other. I was scared and anxious, but I held on to hope. My trust in my companions provided support that held me up.
One of the elders looked deeply skeptical. “Suddenly, I have doubts.”
“Now, now. There is no reason for the wizard to lie to us,” said the mystic.
Although they looked puzzled, their expressions were not those of denial or disgust.
I turned to look at Sedam behind me (well, next to me, after all his scooting) on one side and Reyha on the other. When our eyes met, they both tilted their heads. Rather than anger or suspicion, the looks on their faces seemed to say, “And? Keep going.”
Excuse me, can you tell I’m taking a leap of faith and pouring my heart out here?
“Umm, well. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you both before.”
“Hmm? Well, yeah, I wish you hadn’t kept something so interesting from me for so long.” Sedam didn’t seem to care in the least.
“That’s not what I meant.”
Actually, part of me wondered if his interest in the unknown maybe went a little too far sometimes. But then, I’d met him several months ago. We’d built trust from working together all this time.
“That is the lord I know. It is a fitting history for our Orly. So, you were born a noble.” I’m not sure how Reyha got that out of what I’d said, but her eyes were sparkling.
“I’m…not a noble, though.”
I guess it wasn’t that strange for them to react like this.
But after they looked at me like that, it would be hard to break the news to them that in my former world I was just a normal company employee and not a wizard…While I was relieved at the reactions of my two friends, I felt bad that I was still hiding things.
“Given all your blunders,” Lade chortled, “they make more sense now that we know you’re not from this world.”
“And that’s why you’re so soft…er, why you can think in a different way than normal,” said Canberils.
I was surprised to hear the two of them pipe in on my origins so casually. Lade looked away, like he always did, and Canberils distorted his mouth into what I thought was an uncomfortable attempt at a smile.
“Thanks…” If I read them correctly, they were accepting and encouraging me in their own ways. Surprisingly, I felt some warm emotions.
“Go on, wizard.”
“E-excuse me. Anyway, this Watcher is capable of exerting extraordinary power between this world and other worlds. I’ve lately begun to wonder if it’s because he has some sort of connection to Rimeydal.”
“I have not heard this name in any myths I know… It certainly does sound like an existence similar to Rimeydal.”
So, the word “Watcher” didn’t bring up any hits. Well, I still had the worldly and cosmic truths hidden at the library of the age of gods to look forward to.
“Finally, inside of me, I harbor an existence very similar to an Epicenter. I call it the Gate of Magic. The difference is that it doesn’t connect to the daemon world, but rather, it is a gate to the chaotic realm.”
“Th-that…”
“Does that mean that the prophecy mistook the lord wizard’s gate for an Epicenter?”
The elders came to the same conclusion I had. It was only natural, since they desperately hoped to be rid of the possibility that the collective consciousness of the daemons had given them a false prophecy.
“There is a possibility of a misidentification. However, this prophecy mentions the wizard by name. This has never happened before in five hundred years of performing the ritual,” the mystic pointed out calmly. Then she frowned. “Did you say ‘Gate of Magic’? That is very similar to a prophecy that the first generation received from the sage. According to the sage, the art that connects this world with other worlds belongs to Rimeydal.”
“Rimeydal again…” After listening to the mystic, I started imagining that my theory of magic was something close to the library’s hidden truths.
“In the end, all roads lead to the library from the age of gods.”
“Yes…”
Once we finished our necessary tasks, we would have to start looking for the library.
With that established, we chatted with each other about our experiences with legends and what we knew. It took a while.
Once we were out of topics, the mystic nodded toward us. “For the time being, let us end this exchange of opinions here.”
“Agreed.”
“Very well. Now I would like you to actually witness my ritual.”
I was finally at the stage of verifying the warrior clan’s ritual of connecting with the daemonic overmind. Honestly, I wasn’t planning on just watching. I intended to touch the King of Daemons myself, at the same time.