Chapter 12: Traces of the Archmage
“W-what?”
What was this supposed to an.
Lee Hayun, that kid, was still alive?
“I spoke too decisively. To be precise, a ‘possibility’ has been discovered that your younger sister, that is, Archmage Lee Hayun, may still be alive.”
Diesel forced a smile, wondering if this was so kind of joke.
“How amusing. A joke so funny flowers of laughter are blooming in full.”
“It’s not a joke.”
River spoke as she took sothing out from her bosom.
“Would you like to take a look?”
A dark gray stone fragnt, roughly the size of a palm.
It wouldn’t have been strange at all if soone said it had just been picked up off the roadside.
“Hmm…….”
“What do you think?”
It wasn’t a rock that had fallen from nature, but concrete that soone had artificially produced.
But if it were just an ordinary chunk of concrete, River wouldn’t have shown it like this.
When I examined the stone more closely, sure enough, sothing was engraved inside it.
‘A magic formula.’
A very complex and elaborate type of magic formula I had never seen before was inscribed into the concrete.
‘No. Rather than a magic formula being engraved into the concrete…… it feels like the magic formula itself created this concrete.’
What on earth was this formula for?
After examining the fragnt from every angle, Diesel reached a conclusion.
“This isn’t just concrete. It looks like a piece that fell off a golem. A golem made of concrete. Judging by this, its original size must’ve been pretty large.”
From the magic formula engraved on the fragnt, it was possible to roughly infer the overall scale.
No matter how conservatively it was estimated, it looked like a golem that easily exceeded a two-story building.
At Diesel’s analysis, River smiled.
“That’s right. Even the experts took quite a while to interpret it that far. As expected, our elder is amazing.”
After offering that perfunctory praise, she picked up the golem fragnt.
“However, the truly important question is who made this, and when.”
Even for Diesel, figuring that out wasn’t easy.
Judging from the thod used to inscribe the formula, this wasn’t sothing an ordinary mortal could have made.
Creating a golem in the first place wasn’t an easy task.
Not only did one have to precisely engrave an extrely complex magic formula, but to activate it, an enormous amount of magical power had to be poured in.
That ant, at the very least, a level 5 mage—soone referred to as a continental-class powerhouse.
Soone like that wouldn’t casually leak their personal information inside a magic formula.
Moreover, decisively, that fragnt had co from the part supporting the golem—the lower body. From the start, there couldn’t have been any aningful information engraved there.
‘Things like how the legs move, what the maximum load is…… just that sort of data.’
River seed to know this as well, as she looked the stone over a bit more before setting it down.
“It was impossible to determine that from this fragnt alone. So we investigated the entire southern coast where the fragnts were discovered and found several other pieces. By narrowing down the target with those, we reached the conclusion that this was a golem made by Archmage Lee Hayun.”
Archmage Lee Hayun.
That combination of two words was still awkward.
Diesel picked up the stone again and looked once more at the magic formula imbued with his younger sister’s touch.
‘She made this.’
The fragnt contained only a very small part of the magic formula that moved the golem, but even that alone was enough to gauge just how incredible a mage his sister had been.
At first glance, it seed like an extrely complex formula, but the deeper one looked, the more one realized how cleanly and elegantly it had been constructed.
‘You weren’t an ordinary human either, just like your older brother.’
“The reason such an inference was possible was because of where the golem was made. This golem was created on the island where Archmage Lee Hayun was last discovered. A place no one can enter now—Jeju Island. And the date it was made is…….”
River trailed off for a mont, then continued.
“Approximately one month ago from now.”
One month ago.
It was far more recent than expected.
“Are you sure?”
“It’s the result of an in-depth investigation conducted by a renowned research group.”
“Hm…….”
As Diesel fell into thought for a mont, River spoke quietly.
“And all of this is being managed as top-level classified information.”
She then ford a smile laden with unspoken aning.
‘So that’s a warning to watch my mouth.’
However, Diesel caught sothing that bothered him in her choice of words and asked a question.
“If it’s top-level classified, whose classified information is it?”
Anyone could tell that the contents of what had just been discussed were of great importance.
But there had to be a reason she went so far as to issue a warning with such wording.
The word ‘classified’ implied that so organization was managing the secret.
Sotis, who was hiding the secret mattered more than the secret itself.
“A sharp question.”
River pondered briefly at Diesel’s inquiry, then continued with a slightly more serious expression.
“This is a matter managed by the Royal Guard.”
“Royal Guard……?”
The Royal Guard was the elite unit directly under the Joseon Emperor, tasked with his protection.
“Then are you working with the Royal Guard?”
River shook her head.
“No. I have no connection to them at all. If anything, I’m a person of interest under their surveillance. While I was investigating this fragnt, I had to be extrely careful not to get caught by the Royal Guard. Those people had a particular interest in this golem.”
She put a bit of emphasis into her next words.
“More precisely, it’s interest directed toward Archmage Lee Hayun.”
It wasn’t difficult to associate his sister’s na with the Royal Guard.
Archmage Lee Hayun had once served the Emperor in the position of the first Chief of the Imperial Secretariat.
But as far as Diesel knew, the Imperial Secretariat didn’t belong to the Royal Guard, but to the Seungjeongwon.
“Why would the Royal Guard take an interest in my sister?”
Were they trying to recruit a long-retired Archmage again?
“Because…….”
A national-level elite unit under the Emperor, having interest in the first Chief of the Imperial Secretariat.
Several hypotheses surfaced in Diesel’s mind, but—
the answer River gave next was sothing he had never anticipated.
“Because Archmage Lee Hayun once attempted to assassinate Emperor Sejong in the past.”
***
Rain drizzled down steadily from the morning.
Maybe this damned rooftop room hadn’t been properly waterproofed, because water dripped steadily from the ceiling.
‘I should hurry up and move or sothing.’
The sound of water droplets falling echoed as they hit the tal basin propped up as a temporary support.
Ar, who had been circling around Diesel, seed fascinated by the sound and lightly tapped the rippling surface of the water with a front paw.
Separate from this irritating situation, Diesel actually liked rainy days quite a bit.
It felt as though the dust-filled world was being washed clean.
‘Though right now, the rain is probably mixed with all kinds of harmful substances.’
The morning cityscape visible outside the window was completely drenched in water.
If his heart had its way, he would have liked to open the window and deeply inhale the scent of rain, but knowing that the rain here had lost its forr fragrance, he could only gaze at it and imagine.
Diesel t his own eyes reflected in the glass window.
A face he couldn’t quite get used to.
It was neither his original one, nor his Older Brother’s, but the face of a completely different soone.
After standing by the window for a while like that, he returned to the desk and sat down.
Ar ca fluttering over and gently landed in front of Diesel.
〈Master, worries many.〉
Ar tilted its head to the side and looked at Diesel.
It was probably worrying in its own way.
“I’m fine.”
Diesel stroked Ar’s head a couple of tis, then sank back into thought.
‘No matter how much I search, there’s no mory.’
Starting from the mont he returned from the Underground Great Hall last night, Diesel had retraced, one by one, the mories of his Older Brother that remained in his mind.
But among them, there were no mories related to his Younger Sister anywhere.
He already knew that his Older Brother’s mories were incomplete.
Especially the mories of the most important ‘final day’ could almost be said to not exist at all.
Except for just two parts—the ghost of destruction and White Bear.
‘At least it’s a relief that the mories aren’t gone forever…….’
It seed that if there was so kind of trigger that brought up a specific mory, a portion of the hidden mories would return.
That had been the case with White Bear.
After parting ways with that Demi-god, small episodes between his Older Brother and White Bear would occasionally surface in Diesel’s mind.
Diesel briefly closed his eyes and recalled the conversation he had with Fixer River the night before.
‘An attempt to assassinate Emperor Sejong…….’
What on earth had Lee Hayun been thinking.
River hadn’t explained in detail what his Younger Sister had done, or how.
Whether she didn’t know, or knew but was hiding it, there was no way to tell.
“Ha…….”
That his Younger Sister was alive was, without a doubt, good news.
It felt like he was barely reconnecting to the sense of self called ‘Lee Hajin,’ which had been gradually becoming like a stranger.
Diesel rembered River’s words.
-Again, as I said, Jeju Island, where the golem was discovered, is a place no one can enter.
A Level 1 Special Disaster Alert Zone.
It was a national-level asure imposed on Jeju Island.
The reason given was that various anomalous phenona occurred frequently there.
‘That’s the official story.’
River had told him the truth hidden on the other side.
-Jeju Island is the place where it’s believed that Archmage Lee Hayun passed away.
To be precise, Jeju Island was the site where all of Joseon’s elite forces, including the Royal Guard, had gathered and fought a battle.
All to kill a single Archmage, Lee Hayun.
After a fierce battle worthy of being called a ‘war,’ his Younger Sister was defeated.
Along with her fall, the once-beautiful island of Jeju beca an extre land that could no longer even be set foot upon.
When his Younger Sister collapsed back then, where had his Older Brother been.
Had his Older Brother, Lee Hamin, been among the elite forces that fought a war against her.
For now, there was no way to know.
No matter how hard he tried, not a single fragnt of mory surfaced.
-Why are you telling this?
River had answered Diesel’s question like this.
-The day this golem was created is the sa day you manifested in this world. I wondered if there might be so connection, so I asked. But judging by your reaction, it seems there’s no relation at all.
At the sa ti Lee Hajin gained a second life, movent was detected on his Younger Sister’s side as well.
On the day her Older Brother ca back to life, the Archmage whom the entire world believed to be dead also rose to her feet.
‘Then could it be that my Older Brother too…….’
The thought suddenly occurred to him, but he imdiately shook his head to clear it away.
Don’t make pointless assumptions based on information that can’t be verified.
Instead, do what can be done.
That goal hadn’t changed at all from what he had decided at the beginning.
If anything, it had only beco more firmly set by this chain of events.
He needed to grow stronger.
Power sufficient rely to protect his own body wouldn’t even co close.
He needed enough strength to uncover the hidden truths of this world by himself.
‘Is it possible?’
Diesel clenched his fist and asked himself.
It didn’t take long to answer.
Because he already knew that he possessed more than enough ability to do so.
“Let’s move, Ar.”
He put on his outerwear and headed out.
Ar guarded his side.
It was the beginning of another day.
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