A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special - Chapter 59

Episode 59. For the People (3)

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August 15th.
Several days after the successful completion of all Shadow World Clears, Hebrion Academy suspended classes and held a party.
It was a long-standing tradition at Hebrion Academy to host a party commemorating the end of each year’s Shadow World expeditions.
On this day alone, all students and professors surrendered to the festive atmosphere and enjoyed the celebration.
The party hall was crowded with people. Musicians had gathered to perform, and academy students paired off and danced in the center.
As the boisterous atmosphere continued, a woman quietly entered the party hall.
Those who caught sight of her face all held their breath in wonder, lost in admiration of her beauty.
She swept her gaze across the hall, her long platinum hair flowing, her eyes moving with restless purpose.
Azest Kingscroun.
A woman possessed of cold, aristocratic beauty.
Though a few people approached her to speak, she answered them curtly and quickly excused herself.
She had already experienced once before at a party hosted by Fuggman what could unfold if she remained in such a place.
She had never intended to attend this party in the first place. Parties were tedious. To draw the attention of strangers and attend to them one by one was exhausting work.
The reason she had come to this party was singular.
Having spotted the person she sought, Azest’s footsteps quickened. As she drew closer, voices began to carry more clearly to her ears.
“Why don’t you try dancing?”
“Don’t joke. I don’t even know how to dance.”
“I could teach you, Dezir.”
They were engrossed in idle conversation.
Azest opened her mouth.
“Learning to dance would be worthwhile, Dezir.”
Dezir’s party all turned their heads toward Azest at once.
“Oh, you made it.”
“Good evening, Azest.”
“My, that was quick~”
After exchanging light greetings, Azest took a seat at the remaining place. It was directly across from Dezir.
Dezir handed her a glass.
“Azest, you really outdid yourself this time. We couldn’t have Cleared it so easily without you.”
“You give me too much credit.”
Azest accepted the glass and replied.
She genuinely believed this. In truth, all she had done was resolve the Esteban situation.
Of course, an accomplishment of that scale would not have been resolved so cleanly without her level of ability, but it was a matter that could have been handled sufficiently by someone else.
‘Truly remarkable, though.’
Through this incident, Azest came to regard Dezir far more highly than before.
Until now, all she had known of his ability was the exceptional Computational Ability she had witnessed during the Promotion Exam.
But Dezir had Cleared the quest in the Shadow World without deploying that Computational Ability. What he possessed was far more than merely exceptional calculation.
The capacity to gather scattered clues and derive an outcome.
That ability had reached a level where he could dismantle an opponent’s strategy, discern their intentions, and steer circumstances to his advantage.
‘And…….’
Wilhelm Ebernaton.
Though he had fallen once, he rose again nonetheless.
He was truly a figure worthy of respect.
His devotion to the people.
‘That is surely something I must learn as a princess.’
Azest wondered what she would have done had she been in Wilhelm’s position.
And soon after, she shook her head.
She likely would not have acted as he did.
It was at the moment she was drinking from her glass, entertaining this thought, that Azest spoke with a puzzled note in her voice.
“……Do they really serve Plum Tea at parties?”
“No, I made that myself. I went to a lot of trouble with it—what do you think? Does it taste all right?”
“Isn’t that rather sudden, Dezir?”
“Well, you said you wanted to drink it in the Shadow World, remember? Plum Tea I made myself. So I thought I’d give it a try…… doesn’t it suit your taste?”
Azest’s eyes widened.
‘She was remembering me…… she was remembering?’
Her heart, which had maintained its steady rhythm, suddenly quickened.
It wasn’t anger, and it was different from the thrill of combat.
‘What is this feeling?’
Unable to make sense of it, Azest shook her head slowly.
“No, it’s delicious.”
Romantika looked between Dezir and Azest with a dissatisfied expression, then nudged Fram sharply in the ribs.
Catching Romantika’s signal, Fram spoke urgently to Dezir.
“D-Dezir! I, I mean…… what about the Artifact?”
At those words, Dezir looked down at his own hands.
The Seal of Toa was a glove-type Artifact, and unknown rune characters were inscribed on the back of the gauntlet.
Dezir’s party had obtained the Seal of Toa and a Grade 4 Mana Stone as Clear rewards from the Shadow World.
‘From what I remember, there was only the Seal of Toa, nothing else.’
It seemed they must have Cleared the Shadow World in a more effective manner than before.
Dezir, as the party representative, reported the Seal of Toa to the Educational Administration and had his ownership recognized, then sold the Mana Stone to the Magic Tower after paying the appropriate fees and taxes, pocketing the money.
After that, he attempted to distribute the rewards, but while dividing money was easy, determining who should own the Artifact proved difficult.
Dezir explained to his party members that the Artifact they’d obtained was called the Seal of Toa and that it possessed the function of increasing the absolute value of Mana capacity.
Since Dezir desperately needed the Seal of Toa, he went on to passionately explain to them why it was necessary for him.
Yet, in stark contrast to his earnest plea, they yielded the Artifact’s ownership to him with surprising ease.
Azest’s reasoning was that she naturally possessed a large Mana capacity to begin with; Romantika’s, that Dezir had helped her raise her Circle; and Fram’s, that as a swordsman he had no need for it in the first place.
Thus Dezir obtained the Seal of Toa, and the matter of rewards was resolved by having the three others divide the money obtained from the Mana Stone.
“I haven’t used High-Tier Magic yet, but it seems decent.”
Romantika shifted the conversation to the Shadow World.
“If Artemis Kingdom hadn’t actually been destroyed like that Shadow World, what would be different?”
“There’s no point in ‘what if,’ Romantika.”
“But aren’t you curious? Artemis Kingdom was once a great power, yet it perished neglecting to clear the Shadow World for absurd reasons. If Artemis Kingdom hadn’t fallen so miserably, things might be different now.”
The Shadow World that Dezir’s party encountered was the Kingdom of Artemis on the brink of destruction, already devastated by the last reigning monarch, having vanished before history could even record it.
Before the last monarch ascended the throne, the Artemis Kingdom recorded in history had defended its own Shadow World almost perfectly and had also devoted effort to Clearing the Shadow Worlds of other nations.
Once that kingdom disappeared, the continent had spent long ages failing to contain the Shadow Worlds, and erosion had begun.
Belatedly, various nations established organizations to respond to the Shadow Worlds, and what was born from this effort was the Hebrion Academy of the Hebrion Empire and the Avalon Unit of the Western Kingdom Alliance.
But by then, vast territories of the continent had already been surrounded by the Black Fog.
“There’s no ‘what if,’ but if Wilhelm Ebernaton had changed Artemis Kingdom’s fate, the continent might not have seen half its territory consumed by the Shadow World.”
Artemis Kingdom was a nation that existed in an era before magic had flourished; in that age, the strength of a great power meant the strength of its knights.
The decline of swordcraft relative to magic in the modern era is partly attributed to the fall of Artemis Kingdom, so there was no question as to how formidable those knights must have been.
Had Artemis Kingdom not perished and their swordcraft continued to develop into the present day, they might have been able to conquer the Shadow Labyrinth.
When his thoughts reached that point, Dezir’s mouth turned bitter.
“I still can’t believe the Artemis Church has such a history.”
Everyone nodded at Fram’s words.
After the Kingdom of Artemis, the birthplace of the religion, fell, the Artemis Church resumed its activities in the Western Kingdom Alliance and achieved remarkable flourishing—to the point that it now has worshippers across the entire continent in addition to its headquarters in the Western Kingdom Alliance.
In modern times, it possesses no direct military might comparable to the Hebrion Empire or the Western Kingdom Alliance, but it wields considerable political influence across the entire continent.
“The Artemis Church must have wished this shameful part of Artemis Kingdom’s history would disappear forever with the kingdom itself.”
Dezir chuckled softly as he spoke.
Over the long expanse of history, humanity had repeated cycles of victory and defeat until roughly half the continent’s territory was consumed by the Shadow World.
In that process, nations from eras before historical scholarship and printing technology had developed vanished without even leaving records for posterity. Artemis Kingdom was one such nation.
For this reason, gaps in historical records, starved of sources, could sometimes be filled by Clearing Shadow Worlds.
And on this occasion, Dezir’s party had obtained very important information related to Artemis Kingdom’s history—specifically, to its destruction.
Dezir’s party’s name was added to the list of source materials for newly compiled historical texts concerning Artemis Kingdom.
Because of this, Dezir’s party’s reputation became even more celebrated.
“……But surely we didn’t gather everyone here just to sit and talk?”
They had been sitting in place the whole time, doing nothing but conversing. Romantika was pointing this out.
“I’d appreciate it if you’d think about who started this.”
“Well, I just mean we should go do something.”
Romantika glanced back and forth between those dancing in the center and Dezir.
It was then that Azest stepped forward first.
“Since you’ve said as much, how about dancing one song with me, Dezir?”
Fram looked taken aback at Azest, and Romantika, her moment stolen, also turned to look at her.
“I told you, I can’t dance.”
At Dezir’s refusal, Romantika’s face flushed with anger for a moment.
“What I mean is that I’ll teach you to dance. I don’t know what your aspirations are, but as the party becomes more and more famous in the days to come, you’ll find yourself invited to more occasions like this. You can’t keep refusing dance invitations each time.”
It was absurd, Azest thought blankly to herself, that someone who disliked parties would say such a thing.
“Wait, hold on!”
“We’ve lost our partner…….”
Leaving behind Romantika’s urgent cry and Fram’s hollow murmur, Azest and Dezir made their way toward the center of the hall.
“……Yes, I suppose. Thinking of what lies ahead, it wouldn’t hurt to learn.”
Dezir nodded, seeming to accept Azest’s reasoning to some degree.
Hearing his answer, Azest felt something shift in her chest. The dance she’d learned—begrudgingly, only because of her royal station—was proving useful for the first time.
“I should warn you, I’m really not good at this.”
“I’ll lead. For now, just try to anticipate my movements.”
“This isn’t exactly a battle…….”
“Don’t underestimate it. In high society, dance is no different from combat.”
“……Either way, I’m counting on you. I’ll do my best to learn.”
They joined the others dancing in the central hall and took each other’s hands.
“Then I’ll count us in. One.”
Azest began to move her feet gently.
“Two.”
Dezir shifted his weight slightly as well.
Azest and Dezir faced each other.
The waltz drifted softly through the air.
“Three.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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