Chapter 73

“Abelin!”

After the purple crow’s head fell to the ground, the first thing I did was rush towards Abelin.

Abelin was leaning against a wooden pillar, her eyes closed.

“Are you okay, Abelin?”

“Do I look okay to you right now?”

“Of course not. I’ll take you to a healer right now.”

“No need.”

Rostia walked over slowly, stretched out her hand towards Abelin, and a warm light shone down.

Abelin’s wounds began to heal little by little.

“Thank you, Lady Rostia.”

“No need to thank me. I also got rid of a headache thanks to you. If I had fought that guy with magic against magic, who knows what the outcome would have been. Besides, even with the help of powerful magical equipment, it was you who cut him down. So you can be proud. And……”

Once all the visible wounds had healed, Rostia withdrew the warm light.

“Abelin is badly injured inside. It’s a deep wound that could leave aftereffects if healed too quickly with magic, so take good care of her until she fully recovers.”

“Of course. We were just about to go on vacation anyway……”

“Ria…… Riana.”

What a tenacious life.

The purple crow’s head, lying on the ground, struggled to open its beak.

“Still alive, huh? That tenacity suits the title of Archmage. Farewell……!”

As I approached to plunge my sword into the head,

“Wait!”

Riana shouted to stop me.

“Wait, just wait. I have something I want to ask. So just wait.”

Riana shuddered at the sight of the crow head calling her name, but the voice coming from it was unmistakably that of her former master.

“Come closer. Just this once, I beg you. Just once……”

Hesitating, Riana cautiously stepped towards the crow.

“Riana!”

I blocked her path.

“You haven’t forgotten, have you? That thing is a demon. And it did unspeakable things to you without hesitation, all under the guise of toughening you up.”

“Yeah.”

“Still, you really want to talk to it?”

“……Yeah. This is also my closure. And I know for sure now that my master was a demon, not human.”

If she’s going to say that much.

Riana’s eyes, determined to find closure, sparkled with clarity.

“Go ahead. But if that thing tries to breathe fire, you retreat immediately, okay?”

“It probably won’t.”

Riana added as she took a step forward.

“Probably, if that crow is still the master who cared for me.”

As Riana approached, the crow’s head, pleased, slightly opened its beak and narrowed its eyes.

“Keke, Riana. My Riana, my apprentice……”

“I’m here, Master. I came close, just as you said. Just this once, but I know this will be the last time.”

“Thank you. I thought you’d never want to hear my words again. But you came back……”

“I just want to ask you one thing, Master.”

Riana carefully reached out and lifted the crow’s head.

Looking straight into its eyes, she asked with a resolute voice.

“Did you really care for me, Master?”

“……Of course. Since I’ve been abandoned by the god I followed, I’ll tell you everything.”

The crow, now just a head, seemed to struggle to speak, perhaps conserving energy, and closed its eyes.

“I was sent to this world, to the magic realm, to spread chaos. At first, I even managed to enter the Shadow Tower. But they were too sharp. They realized I was a demon and tried to capture me for research. So I fled here, to the north. I hid in Rostia’s newly built Magic Tower and quietly increased the number of followers of the crow god.”

Archmage Rostia, who had been listening, frowned.

Seeing that, I quietly asked.

“You said you knew that guy was a demon, Lady Rostia?”

“Of course I knew. Quietly living, my foot? Not a single one of the mages he taught didn’t turn into an eccentric.”

Whether we talked or not, the crow continued to spill its secrets.

“Then Balthazar came to me. We had never spoken before, but he already knew I was a demon. And he entrusted you to me with a request.”

“What request? To make me a strong mage?”

“Similar. But different. What Balthazar wanted was to make you different from humans. A being that ordinary humans could not approach.”

“A being that ordinary humans cannot approach, what does that even mean……”

“And it was a success.”

A heart-sinking statement.

With those final words, the crow slumped.

“Wait, what do you mean it was a success?”

“I can’t say it was a complete success. But Riana, you are no longer an ordinary human…… Gah, gah……!”

Suddenly, the crow’s head began to tremble in agony.

“Why, why is this happening? Calm down!”

“My god, who abandoned me! At least I did not defy you! So at least take me back and give me a new form…… Gah!”

With that scream, the crow’s head was engulfed in purple flames.

“Ah……!”

“Step back, Riana!”

Riana, startled, dropped the crow’s head and stepped back.

The crow’s head, now on fire, writhed in agony before finally slumping and continuing to burn.

In the end, it met the same fate as other demons.

“Are you okay, Riana? Just let go of whatever that thing said. Don’t think too deeply about it, don’t let it bother you.”

“How, how can I not be bothered? It said it succeeded in making me a being that ordinary humans cannot approach!”

“If it wasn’t a complete success, then it means it failed. So don’t be confused. You’re definitely human.”

“……Right?”

“No.”

Rostia interrupted my attempt to comfort Riana.

“Lady Rostia?”

“I understand you’re confused right now. But to prevent greater confusion, let’s be clear. Riana, I can’t sense mana in you.”

“You can’t sense mana? What do you mean? I’m a mage, and I use mana every time I cast magic.”

“To be precise, it’s not ordinary mana.”

“What, what does that mean……”

“You’re not an ordinary mage. You’re a mage who learned magic from a demon, using demonic magic. Look. You’re using no-chant magic, which only Archmages can use, as if it’s nothing. Do you think that’s possible for someone who hasn’t even become a High Magician yet?”

“But, Master. No, that demon said it. The principle of magic is earnest desire.”

“There’s a limit to that. And it’s almost impossible to use no-chant magic without great enlightenment. You’re using magic instinctively, not through formulas. Isn’t that right?”

Riana couldn’t come up with a proper rebuttal to Rostia’s point.

As a warrior, I don’t understand much, but from a mage’s logic, it seems airtight.

“Since he said he made you a being that ordinary humans cannot approach, it makes even more sense.”

“The magic I use is demonic magic……”

Riana hung her head low.

“But don’t be too disheartened. In fact, it’s a good thing.”

“A good thing?”

“Ronos was beyond my research. But you’re different, aren’t you, Riana?”

Rostia approached Riana, who was hanging her head, and extended her hand.

“Let’s research that demonic magic together. If you’ve already mastered it, then instead of being consumed by it, we can use it.”

“Use demonic magic……”

After a moment of thought, Riana nodded.

“Yes, I’ll do that. I can’t stand this. I’ve been raised in such a strange way, and if I leave it as it is, I think it will become irreparably wrong in the future.”

“Good thinking. That positive mindset is what makes a great mage. Let’s head back for now.”

“Yes. We need to properly treat Abelin too.”

“Right. Let’s do that. But……”

Rostia gestured somewhere with her head.

“What about that?”

“‘That’?”

When I turned my head, there was the burnt remains of the crow’s head lying on the ground.

……Wait.

It didn’t take long for me to realize something was wrong.

‘Demons disappear from this world when killed. That’s normal, so why is Ronos’s head still here?’

I found it strange and picked up the crow’s head.

And at that moment.

‘Ah, this is……!’

It was already the second time.

As if waiting, demonic energy flowed from the crow’s head and clung stickily to my body.

Even more powerful than Cerberus’s energy.

The energy was so immense that I could only tremble in place as I absorbed it.

And when I finally finished absorbing it……

“Kairon oppa……?”

“Hoho, you’re not so ordinary either.”

Riana looked at me with frightened eyes, and Rostia looked at me as if she had found something incredibly delicious.