“Father, are you alright?!”
Walwiss heard hurried footsteps from below. When he looked below, he saw his son Orlando looking up at him. Then, Walwiss looked towards the darkness where the mysterious, unidentified man had disappeared into.
“I’m fine.” His body began to slowly descend.
Crash!
As soon as he landed on the ground, he felt something crumble underneath his feet. The pure, white ice covering the ground broke with his steps. The Jaewick family’s garden was completely frozen now; in stark contrast to the fire sparks, magma, and ashes that covered the area and stirred up an image of Hell, the lightly frozen surface let out cool air.
It was Orland’s work. It seemed like he couldn’t let the surface continue to burn up or let magma flow out. Walwiss stared at Orland whose complexion looked a bit pale, and Walwiss’ face was slightly distorted.
‘I can’t believe this little bit of magic changed his complexion.’
Although he had cast a large-scale spell, Orland was a representative of a school of magic; even if he sat at the end, he took one of the seats of the top ten figures in the magical tower. But Walwiss remembered how Orland told him that his condition wasn’t good these days and repressed his anger.
‘He must be overworking himself for his daughter,’ Walwiss thought. Moreover, he had no right to scold Orland right now.
“I lost him. What a shame.” Walwiss told his son bitterly and also apologized to Wayne, “I turned the Jaewick family’s garden into a mess. I will definitely compensate you for it. I apologize.”
“N-No need, sir! Since a mysterious person trespassed into our house, it’s actually our management’s fault for being careless. I should be the one apologizing.”
Although Wayne had been acting difficult around Walwiss because of the recent events, he treated Walwiss with the utmost respect now. The debris and ruins in front of him incited too much fear in him to act like a troublemaker as usual.
“Thank you for understanding.” Walwiss thanked him.
“Who was that guy?” Orland stared at the place Zich had run away from and asked. “I don’t know, but he definitely has some formidable skills.”
‘Even if it’s incomplete, I can’t believe he saw through my spell’s weakness and nullified it.’
Walwiss was really shocked when the trespasser targeted the awkward parts in his mana flow and ripped apart the spell itself. He had never been more shocked since he became the master of the magical tower.
‘On top of that, he used invisibility magic.’ Since the trespasser’s movements weren’t like a mage’s, it seemed like he had used an artifact.
“Do you think he’s someone related to Elena’s kidnapping?”
“I can’t exclude that possibility.” Walwiss had overexerted himself in somebody else’s house because of this possibility anyways. “But if that’s the case, this is more troublesome.”
To think that their opponent had someone so skilled like that—it made Walwiss’ heart feel heavy.
* * *
When Zich returned, Lyla was waiting inside his room. Lyla felt very relieved when she saw Zich.
“Were you worried?”
“Of course!” As if she thought Zich’s calm attitude was annoying, she responded a bit roughly. “A commotion erupted after you went inside the Jaewick family’s house!”
“What, did you doubt my skills?”
“Usually, I wouldn’t, but the magic I felt coming from that place exceeded my imaginations!”
‘Well, I suppose someone like Lyla would be more sensitive to it.’ As an excellent mage, Lyla would have probably felt the powerful magical force inside the mansion more strongly than anyone else.
“Don’t worry. All my injuries are healed, and my identity wasn’t revealed.”
“Healed? Were you hurt?”
“I thought I was going to die,” Zich chuckled. However, Lyla couldn’t laugh. If Zich said this, it meant that the intensity of the battle was beyond imaginable.
“What in the world happened?”
“Before that, could you please give me some space?” Zich pulled down his robe slightly, revealing his bare skin. “All my clothes burned when I got attacked. The only thing I’m wearing right now is this single robe, so I’d like to get dressed. Of course, if you want to see me change, I could take off one—”
Slam!
Before Zich could finish his sentence, Lyla slammed the door and left. Zich laughed as he looked at the door.
* * *
“Walwiss Dwayne was there.” These were Zich’s first words to Lyla after he put on new clothes and sat in front of her.
“Walwiss Dwayne? The master of the magical tower? Elena’s grandfather?”
“Yeah.”
“You got caught by him?”
Zich nodded. “He was talking with Orland Dwayne and Wayne Jaewick. I was hanging on the windowsill to eavesdrop when—”
“You got caught.”
“It seems like I was caught because of the artifact’s invisibility magic. I let my guard down. I should have been more careful about using magic in front of a mage of his level.”
“Was it because of the artifact?”
“There’s no need for you to feel guilty. I’m the one who decided to trespass. I’m also the one who let my guard down and made the judgment to use an artifact in front of the head of Sunewick’s magical tower,” Zich said in a matter-of-fact tone and smiled. “Furthermore, I was able to retrieve some good information.”
Feeling down at the thought of putting Zich’s danger, Lyla asked, “Information?” It seemed as if Zich’s words helped her feel better.
“You know how there are Demon Lords other than me in the future, right?”
“Yeah. I remember them all as unredeemable, no-good bas…no, guys who only negatively impact the world.” Lyla’s guilt towards Zich and her judgment of Demon Lords were completely different matters; despite softening her words, her words about Demon Lords were still extremely harsh.
Zich did not rebuke Lyla’s statements. “Yeah. And out of the Demon Lords, I’ve found the Demon Lord of Magic.”
“The Demon Lord of Magic?” Lyla showed keen interest. Since she was also a mage, Lyla couldn’t help but be more interested in the Demon Lord of Magic out of all the Demon Lords. “Wait! Is Walwiss Dwayne the Demon Lord of Magic?”
Even without thinking too deeply about this matter, Lyla could easily reach the answer by combining all the clues she had so far. Lyla said her sentence as a question in surprise, but she also knew that this was probably the correct answer.
“Ha, well, it’s not a surprise. Since Walwiss and the Demon Lord of Magic are both magic experts, it’s not strange for the Demon Lord of Magic to have been the master of the magical tower in the past.” Then Lyla stared at Zich to get confirmation that she was right.
Zich said, “You’re right. Walwiss Dwayne became the Demon Lord of Magic in the future.”
“Are you sure?”
“Walwiss Dwayne used one of the Demon Lord of Magic’s original spells. He’s definitely the Demon Lord of Magic.”
“Yeah, that seems reasonable.” Lyla accepted his explanation as Zich spoke with confidence.
“I thought he was a nice grandpa who cared about his granddaughter. I can’t believe he becomes a Demon Lord in the future.” Then, Lyla was surprised again. “Wait! Glen Zenard and his Hero Party killed all the Demon Lords! That means…!”
Zich finished her sentence. “That means Elena killed her own grandfather.”
“…Do you think that the future Elena knew that the Demon Lord of Magic was her grandfather?”
“I don’t know, but the Demon Lord of Magic probably knew who she was. Elena Dwayne’s background was really well known.”
A granddaughter who killed her own grandfather—just thinking about it was horrifying. Lyla had no idea what type of situations and events led to such a tragedy, but she didn’t want her disciple, Elena, to have to go through such an experience in the future.
“We’re going to change the future right?”
“Of course,” Zich laughed cynically. “Before he gained the title of the Demon Lord, he was just a Demon Person. And the robed figures are in this city right now.”
“Those guys are probably trying to corrupt Walwiss.”
“Yeah, it’s obvious. I thought Elena was their only target, so I didn’t expect a future Demon Lord to appear here.”
“Then are both of them targets of the robed figures?”
“That could be a possibility.”
“Then we should quickly find the identity of robed figures’ collaborator. Those guys always have a local collaborator.”
“I’ve already found it. Probably.”
“You already found it?” Lyla asked in surprise.
“I’m not sure about the other areas, but I definitely found the person who targeted Elena.” Then Zich got up from his chair and moved towards one side of the wall.
Lyla’s eyes slowly followed his movements. Zich grabbed something that was leaning on the wall and held it up.
“…Ice?” Lyla murmured the identity of the object in Zich’s hand.
“Yep.” Zich put down the object on the table. It was an ice spike that was the size of a person’s arm. The ice spike’s surface was uneven as if it had been roughly cut by a knife, but the edges were very sharp. If someone carelessly touched the ice spike, their fingers would be pierced straight through.
Lyla narrowed her eyes. “It’s made with magic.”
“As expected, you recognize it right away.” Zich sat back on his chair. “While I was running away, Orland Dwayne shot this towards me.”
‘Yeah, he said that Orland Dwayne was there too.’ Lyla thought and swiped the ice spike in front of her with her fingers. It was well made. The ice spike had excellent durability and was freezing cold. Even though it had been created a while ago, it was still able to maintain its form; one could gauge the mage’s skills based on that fact.
‘Since he’s going to be the next master of the magical tower, I guess that’s expected.’ Then Lyla put her whole hand on the ice spike and lightly fused mana into it.
“…Ah?” Lyla’s eyes widened.
Zich saw her expression and smirked. “I knew you would be able to recognize it right away.”
“Wait! Then this is really…!” Lyla lifted the entire spike up and poured more mana into it. The ice spike started glowing faintly.
Zich watched this sight and said, “When I saw that Elena hadn’t awakened her mana yet, I questioned it from the very beginning. If she failed to awaken her mana due to external measures, why was her mana blocked?”
Lyla moved her eyes away from Zich and stared at him.
“Did the robed figures block her mana because it would be easier for them to fulfill their plans if she wasn’t strong enough to resist? I also thought that if Glen Zenard was involved in this, he might have blocked her mana so that it would be easier for him to get Elena to join his party. At the same time, he could also prevent Elena from joining another party.”
Just listening to this made Lyla’s blood pressure rise. If Zich’s words were indeed true, Lyla would rip apart Glen’s face as many times as possible.
“Another thought also came into my mind. What if Elena’s mana was blocked not to accomplish some kind of future scheme, but to obtain something out of it in the present? I became more suspicious when I found out that a part of Nowem’s mana kept disappearing whenever it entered Elena’s body.”
“Perhaps…”
“Her mana, her magic powers, and her talent itself—what if those external measures were sending some or all of Elena’s powers and abilities to a different place?”
This was why Zich continued to make Elena practice her magic using Nowem’s mana. Zich stared at the ice spike. Lyla also followed his gaze.
“Orland Dwayne used to be a subpar mage, right?”
“…Yeah, and he only became successful after transferring to another school of magic.” Unlike Zich’s light-hearted tone, Lyla’s voice was deeper than normal.
“This is getting fun. I wonder what that guy was thinking while looking at his daughter. I’m a bit curious about that.”
Lyla did not reply to Zich’s mocking words. She just stared intently at the ice spike in front of her. There was a very slight, familiar energy inside the ice spike. It was an energy that only Lyla and Zich could have recognized since they were constantly with Snoc and Nowem—it was the energy of the earth.