A Talentless Mage Devours a Disaster-Class Future - Chapter 14

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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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Episode 14

The Small Hall had always been a quiet place.
In dormitories, such halls rarely hosted formal events, classes, or examinations.

For good reason.
If something formal was needed, the main hall sufficed; if intimacy was called for, better venues abounded.

Most days it reeked of dust, and now and then came the sound of someone abandoning a piano mid-piece and fleeing.

But today, the Small Hall was transformed.
The sweetness of wine lingering in glasses.
The faint ghost of perfume.
A glittering chandelier cast light across the high ceiling, and accented voices drifted through the air like idle clouds.

Tonight, the Exchange Student Gathering was being held here.

“Not enjoying yourself?”

Someone beside her tapped her shoulder with a laugh.

A girl from abroad.

Too bright a voice, too familiar a touch—Laila instinctively tried to step back, but the girl wouldn’t permit it.

“I’d feel awkward coming alone, you know? Since you’re an exchange student too, making friends here will help, trust me!”
“……”

Rather than reply, Laila sat down—or rather, was made to sit.

The girl grinned with satisfaction and raised her glass.

“A toast! Tonight we get to know each other.”

Laila did not lift her glass.

She’d never cared for these gatherings. Introductions, posturing, false kindness.

Everyone dressed it up as getting closer, but it was really just a procedure for determining who held the most valuable possessions.

Yet she’d come because this girl beside her—Ruana Belmora—had done her many favors.

More than once, Ruana’s help had let her avoid situations that would have become tiresome.

A debt repaid is a debt honored.

Laila observed the crowd without expression.

At the center of the group stood a nobleman’s heir from some kingdom—loud-voiced, boisterous in his laughter, unashamed in exaggerating his nation’s superiority.

“Ah, everyone. My apologies for the late introduction.”

He raised his glass.

“I am Edric, of the Liston Kingdom.”

The room quieted.
Everyone here knew that this introduction was merely where his bragging would begin.

Edric spoke without pause, detailing the extent of his family’s power, the breadth of their trading partners, the reach of their influence.

Laila turned her gaze away. There was no need to meet his eyes.
If he did not ask her name, she need not offer it.

But then.

Edric’s eyes—which had been moving smugly from face to face through his introduction—suddenly fixed on Laila.

He paused mid-sentence and studied her directly, as though examining a jewel he had just discovered.

“Oh, I don’t believe we’ve been introduced.”

The attention of the room shifted toward her.
Laila did not lift her head.

“Fascinating.”

Edric leaned forward.

“Your eyes. Your presence. It’s as though—how should I put it?—you’ve come from somewhere unreachable.”

Laila offered no reaction, and Ruana, noticing her stiffness, let out an awkward laugh and rushed to smooth over the moment.

“She’s beautiful, isn’t she? That’s Laila.”

Still, Laila did not respond. Impatient, Edric’s voice dropped lower.

“Draconis, was it?”

Laila lifted her eyes—barely, minutely.

……
“Forgive me; my knowledge is rather limited.”

He smiled with practiced ease.

“I’ve never heard of such a house. Might you tell me which region it hails from—just that much?”

Soft laughter rippled through the room—not warmth, but the brittle sound of names being weighed and measured.

The exchange students had not been admitted to the inner circles of Exion’s Imperial elite, yet they had adopted their mockery without hesitation.

Every cutting remark, every sneer.

Laila set down her untouched glass and spoke quietly.

“Tervar.”
“Tervar? Ah… the highlands of Tervar in the Lexon Kingdom, then… I see.”

Edric’s expression shifted to one of suspicion.

“Neither far nor near from Exion. My own kingdom has trade there, and I’ve heard rumors. But this name—Draconis—I confess I don’t recognize it.”

Laila’s eyebrows rose, imperceptibly.
Did he truly not know, or was he feigning ignorance? Either way, it made no difference to her.

If he desired the answer so keenly, there was no reason to withhold it.

“Yes.”

She spoke.
The simplicity of her words drew everyone’s attention instead.

“I—”

In that instant,

CRASH—!!

The world lurched.
The chandelier swayed violently, and the glasses trembled in unison.
Someone shrieked. Someone else kicked back their chair and shot to their feet.

“Ahhhhhhh!”
“What the—?!”

The Small Hall erupted into chaos in an instant.

“That sound just now—!”
“An explosion?!”
“From outside—?!”

Laila pushed herself up and immediately fixed her eyes on the door.

The impact had sent light flashing across the iron door and the Small Hall’s windows.

The Rune Characters that ordinarily went unnoticed around the frame suddenly flared into view all at once.

“Everyone stay—!”

And then—

Thrummm-

The Barrier descended.

“What just—? Why is the Barrier—?”

A sensation of space constricting suddenly.
A transparent wall unfurled along the door and walls.

Snap-

Thud-!

“Ugh…”

Someone had rushed forward to grab the handle, only to bounce off the invisible wall.

“What kind of Barrier is this?!”
“Why is it activating here—!”

Laila’s eyes narrowed.

An Emergency Barrier.
Typically activated during disasters or external intrusions—isolating the interior from the outside to provide protection.

But there was something wrong with this barrier.

“…The barrier’s wrong.”
“What do you mean? Move aside, let me see!”

Clang… clang….

Edric pushed against the door.

Boom-boom-boom!

Someone else kicked the door.

Soon, students began unleashing spells at the door in unison.

Crash-crash-crash-crash-crash!

“This… this can’t be….”
“Are we… trapped?”

The strikes weren’t getting through. Every attack sank into mud—that was the feeling.

Laila pressed her palm against the barrier and released her mana very slowly.

……

Normally, if you touched a barrier from inside, there should be some reaction.
Since it was an Emergency Barrier, it existed for the safety of those within.

Which meant it should be possible to disable it from the inside.

But this wasn’t like that. It was actually blocking contact from within.

Laila’s lips parted slightly.

“…It’s inverted.”
“What? What do you mean… Laila?”

Ruana’s trembling voice came from beside her.

Laila traced the barrier again instead of answering.

“It should be keeping the outside out, but it’s keeping the inside in.”

Ruana looked toward the door at those words. Laila was right. The barrier… was facing inward.

“We can’t get out of here.”

Ruana’s face drained of color.

“That’s… a lie….”

Laila turned her gaze away.

The Small Hall was vast, with a high ceiling. All the more so because it was nobility’s space.

That made it all the crueler.

Hot smoke would rise upward,
buying those trapped inside some time to breathe.
This space wouldn’t hold up much longer either.

In that moment of gathering her thoughts, a dull crash echoed from outside once more.

Crash!

Someone stumbled and cried out.

“Fire… there’s fire!”
“The flames are coming up from outside!!”
“The windows are glowing red….”

Laila exhaled slowly.
People were beginning to panic.
Some casting barriers without noticing their hands flushing red from heat, others weeping as they sank to the floor, still others grasping at their companions and shaking them.

Among the chaos, Laila confirmed one thing.

The lock mechanism beside the door, on the inside.
It wasn’t working either.

There was no way out except to have someone pry the door open from the outside.

The moment that conclusion settled in, the back of Laila’s neck grew cold.

……

Outside, flames engulfed everything. The scale was far greater than she’d imagined. So when would rescue arrive?

Laila lifted her hand to her throat.

A scale-patterned necklace.
Ever cold, ever silent—
an ornament that appeared to others as mere decoration.

Squeeze.

Laila grasped the scales between her fingers.

……

She spoke something softly to the necklace.
The words were so brief they sounded almost like a final farewell.

Hum.

The scales flickered in response, then fell silent.

Sigh.

Laila closed her eyes, then opened them.

She spoke to all of them in a low voice.

“Get low.”

People stared at Laila with bewildered faces.
Regardless, she pressed on.

“Save your breath. All of it.”

Her tone was so resolute that a few instinctively obeyed.
But not all of them.

Quite some time had passed since then.
It might have been brief in absolute terms, but at least that’s how it felt to them.

So they couldn’t help but grow more anxious.

“Please… please save us!”

Someone knocked on the barrier again, while another cried out in desperation.

“Why won’t it open! Why won’t it open?!”

Laila stared at the barrier.

And her brow furrowed ever so slightly.
The barrier’s surface was trembling faintly.

‘…Coincidence?’

Had the blast reached this far?

Boom—

A loud sound came from outside.
A completely different quality from the explosion.

More like debris being cleared away.
Which meant….

“…It’s not a coincidence.”

In that moment, the ceiling of the Small Hall trembled once and shed dust.

Screech—!

“Agh….”
“I don’t want to die….”

Everyone held their breath at once.

Silence settled over them.

Screeeech—

The iron door groaned from outside.
It was the sound of metal crumpling.

Everyone’s eyes snapped toward the door all at once.

“Wait… wasn’t there no one outside a moment ago?”
“A rescue team?!”
“A professor? Someone’s here!”

They began to grow frantic.

“T-try to open the door! We need to shout!”
“Help us! We’re here… we’re here….”

Screeeeeech—

……

Crack—

BOOM—!

As the Rune Characters etched into the door lost their luminescence, the Barrier shattered with them.

“It’s… it’s open!”
“We’re alive… *cough*… we’re alive!”

Everyone bolted toward the door, hands clasped over mouth and nose.

And then they saw.
Who stood before it.

“…Good heavens.”

In front of the open door was

a boy, his forehead and face slicked with blood, collapsed on his knees.

***

Word of the Lumenia Hazel Wing fire reached Seria von Creutz as well.

Shocking as the news was, she was staying not in the Lumenia dormitory, but in the Sirwen Dormitory.

It was someone else’s trouble, so emotional turmoil was….

‘…Wait. Hazel Wing?’

In that moment, Seria realized someone she knew from memory was staying there.

― You, surely not… Seria?

Seria ran frantically toward Hazel Wing. She couldn’t stop even as her breath grew ragged.

The tightness constricting her chest demanded relief more urgently than fatigue.

‘They must have gotten out… surely… they have to have gotten out.’

When she arrived at Hazel Wing, Seria froze, staring blankly.

“…This can’t be real.”

Whoooosh—

Flames devoured the building.
Crimson light licked at the windows while black smoke spiraled skyward, darkening the night further.

Each time she heard the groan of pillars splintering apart, ice crawled down Seria’s spine.

There were people.

“Damn it all… why did this have to happen when every Water Magic professor is away on university business?”

Someone’s voice amplified the dread coiling in Seria’s chest.

“This can’t be….”

She murmured to herself, straining to hear the names of the Unescaped Persons being called out by the staff.

And the moment she spotted a name that should not have been there, she bit down hard on her lip.

Thud-!

Just then, someone brushed past Seria’s shoulder. The crowd was surging toward the exit.

“They’re coming out!”
“People are emerging!”
“Move aside!”

Seria looked up.
They were indeed pouring out.
Coughing, weeping, supporting one another. Some crawled through the doorway as though on their hands and knees.

“Cough… cough….”
“I… I made it….”

Seria’s eyes swept quickly through their midst.

…He wasn’t among them.

Aion Iscar.

Only two remained unaccounted for.

Laila Draconis.
And Aion Iscar.

Seria wasn’t particularly fond of him, but neither was she cold-hearted enough to regard with indifference someone she’d spoken with mere moments ago now fighting for their life.

“Aion….”

She spoke his name without knowing she was doing so.

It was then that a low, mocking voice sounded from beside her.

“…Survived death, did he? If he hasn’t come out by now, he’s not making it.”

A blond male student, his face streaked with soot, spoke with absolute certainty.

“He won’t come out.”

Seria’s jaw clenched.

“…Don’t speak like that.”

Cael glanced at her and smirked.

“Do you know what’s in there? I was just inside! It’s like hell itself in there!”

Seria’s hands trembled.

“You….”
“They’re all dead. Horribly so.”

Cael seemed to speak with a certain conviction.

But then it happened.

A murmur rose among the crowd, louder than before.

“There! There!”
“Someone’s coming out!”

Seria turned reflexively toward the sound.

A silhouette emerged from the black smoke.

A figure walking slowly, cradling someone in their arms.

Seria’s heart leaped.

It had to be Aion.
…And yet, at the same moment, an inexplicable anger surged through her.

‘Worrying me like that… and… was he really out there rescuing just anyone?’

Had Aion rescued another female student?

Relief drained the strength from Seria’s limbs, and shame washed over her for having rushed here in such worry.

“Really….”

She studied the silhouette more carefully.

…The shoulders of the person being held were far broader than those of the one carrying them.

Seria’s thoughts came to an abrupt halt.

As the smoke cleared, a face emerged.
It was Laila Draconis.

With an expressionless face, she cradled a man in her arms as though he were royalty.

Seria stared blankly at the sight and murmured.

“…It’s the other way around?”

The man she was carrying was Aion.

Blood matted his forehead.
A red streak traced beneath his nose.
His lips were ashen, his eyes closed.
His body hung limp in her grip.

“Aion…!”

Thank the heavens.
He was alive.

Only once she’d confirmed that much did the suffocating dread that had gripped Seria’s chest finally lift away.

He seemed to have sustained considerable injuries, but watching him sleep peacefully in the young woman’s arms, her worry felt like an indulgence she couldn’t afford.

Her thoughts turned instead to how this incident would unfold to its conclusion.

The blaze in the Hazel Wing showed no sign of weakening.

Something appeared in the sky.

Storm clouds.

An extraordinarily malformed Cumulonimbus Cloud materialized abruptly and unleashed rain upon the Hazel Wing.

Whoooooosh—!

Crash—!

“Rain… it’s raining!”
“It’s pouring down!”

Sizzzzzzzzz—

As an enormous deluge suddenly crashed down, everyone watched the situation unfold.

The flames began to die in the downpour.

Crash—!

Lightning struck.

“…That makes no sense. Why is it suddenly raining…?”

In that flash of light, someone looked up at the sky.

Between the clouds, a shape wavered like a shadow.

Enormous wings.

“That… that thing….”

Someone murmured in a trembling voice.

“A… a dragon…?”

“Ah… yes… I suppose you’re right.”

The Talentless Mage Swallows a Catastrophic Future Episode 14

Author
Wang Mozhi
Publisher
Daon Creative
Planning / Editing / Production
Yeon
Cover
Dali

UCI
G720:N+A036-20260706063.0014

ⓒ2026, Wang Mozhi

※ This e-book is protected under the copyright law of the Republic of Korea.
No part or all of the content of this work may be reprocessed in any form without the permission of the author and publisher.

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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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