A Talentless Mage Devours a Disaster-Class Future - Chapter 23
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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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Chapter 23
The storm of a weekend had passed.
Ruana, conscripted into labor against her will, complained bitterly that she’d never return.
Yet when Leila asked her to come again, she stiffened for a moment before wagging her tail like a puppy and promising to return, then departed.
Aion watched her receding figure until it disappeared from the Mountain Cabin, then quietly looked away.
Thanks to Ruana’s assistance, repairs to the Mountain Cabin progressed noticeably with each passing day.
One crumbled wall had taken on a proper shape, and the creaking door frame no longer groaned.
As Leila settled into assisting with the nailing while Aion positioned and struck the planks, their work rhythm accelerated visibly.
Through this labor, Aion completed Yggdrasil’s task and gained stamina.
‘I don’t understand how grueling physical labor relates to the body’s endurance against magic….’
But if Yggdrasil judged it so, he would follow.
Well, gains were gains regardless.
Still, one thought gripped Aion above all else.
Sien, the Great Spirit of Wind.
Aion hadn’t seen Sien since that day.
In his stead, Aion developed a habit of scanning the area around the Mountain Cabin. The thought that the Great Spirit might appear again at any moment kept him vigilant.
If she appeared again, how should he send her away? No suitable method came to mind.
‘This will weigh on me the entire time I’m living here….’
He could only sigh deeply.
Another matter weighing on him.
Dark Matter.
He’d decided to set the Dark Matter question aside for now. He had no materials on hand, nor any lead on the key’s whereabouts.
As Life’s Ultimate Point had said, setting it aside for the time being was the right choice.
‘There are other things I’ve put off because of the fire incident.’
Catching up on the lessons he’d fallen behind in. And his newly assigned lecture.
Aion, lost in thought, stopped when he reached the end of the Lecture Hall Building corridor.
It was outside the Basic Magic Combat classroom.
***
Aion pushed open the classroom door.
The classroom was already packed with students.
‘Oddly quiet, this place.’
He swept his gaze across the room, searching for a seat. Unlike a typical classroom, the seating wasn’t arranged in tiers.
A broad, flat floor, a raised platform at the center, and seats arranged in a circle around it—like an amphitheater.
And the students.
At a glance, they were anything but ordinary. Even sitting still, each of them radiated a distinct presence.
‘…These are strong ones.’
The atmosphere reminded him of the third floor of the Arcanum Library.
Click—
Just as Aion was finding a seat to sit down.
“Hey, you. The one who just got here.”
A low voice tossed the words his way.
Aion turned his gaze.
A student was leaning back in his seat, looking up at Aion. He was part of a group—three or four others sat gathered in the rear seats, but the one who’d spoken was the one sitting in front.
“You’re Aion Iscar, right? The guy who made it out alive from that fire?”
Aion didn’t answer immediately.
Heh—
The student who’d spoken laughed.
“Looks like I hit the mark. But hey, don’t get me wrong—I’m just asking out of curiosity.”
The student paused for effect.
“Did you start that fire yourself?”
“……?”
“You got caught up in that whole irregular admission scandal, so you hold a grudge against Excyon Academy? Something like that?”
Aion’s gaze fixed on him.
The student kept talking.
“Or did you genuinely want to be a hero? With no real talent, that’s the only way to make a name for yourself, right?”
A silence fell.
Then Aion spoke.
“In one sense, I envy you.”
The student’s eyebrows flickered.
“With an imagination that impoverished, you’ll never want for entertainment in life.”
“……What?”
The atmosphere turned cool in an instant.
At that very moment,
Snicker—
Laughter leaked out from somewhere.
Though soft, it carried clearly through the classroom.
A plain, undisguised mockery.
His attention snapped toward the sound.
The middle row on the left side.
A young woman sat there with her hand clamped over her mouth, her black Witch Robe topped by a worn, wide-brimmed hat.
Beneath the hat, hair with an orange tint cascaded in rich waves. Her round cheeks and youthful face were suffused with golden eyes brimming with laughter.
Her gaze met his, and she gave a small wave.
“I’m sorry, I can’t… heh… I can’t stop laughing. I just laugh too much… hee….”
Her laughter showed no signs of stopping.
His face hardened.
Then whispers began trickling in from those around them.
“…That’s Dorothy.”
“Wait, that girl is Granvel van Meyer’s granddaughter? The Great Mage?”
His expression shifted subtly as he caught the murmurs.
“……Tch.”
He clamped his mouth shut.
Having only succeeded in embarrassing himself, the reaction from his group looked poor as well.
A student sitting at the far end of the group—the most inconspicuous spot—fixed his gaze on the scene. His stare was quiet and cold.
That gaze slowly shifted toward Aion.
Steady.
Without a word.
Bang—
The door swung open.
“Sorry, sorry! Am I a bit late!?”
The professor burst into the classroom with an enormous stack of materials clutched in both arms.
She slammed her materials down on the podium desk with a sharp bang, caught her breath, and flashed a brilliant smile at the students.
“Hello, everyone. Good to see you again. I’m Donabel, your instructor for Basic Magic Combat.”
The female professor appeared quite young.
Her round face still held a rosy flush, and her cheerful demeanor made her look so youthful that you’d struggle to believe she was actually a professor at Excyon Academy.
“Let’s start with attendance.”
Donabel rummaged through the stack of materials, found the attendance roster, and opened it. She called out names one by one, then paused.
“Aria di Valera?”
No answer came.
The professor scanned the classroom.
A student raised her hand.
“Um, Professor, I heard that Aria is finishing a performance engagement in Calion and is on her way to Excyon. She probably hasn’t arrived yet.”
“Is that so?”
Her eyes widened.
“Oh, what a shame for Aria.”
“…Pardon?”
“She must be eager to join the class.”
Quiet laughter rippled through the classroom.
“Ha… haha…”
One student stifled a laugh and spoke up.
“Professor, with respect, I don’t think Aria would see it quite that way.”
“No? Why ever not?”
“Well, Aria is one of the Empire’s most renowned Primas and is called the Star of Calion. In Calion, which is famous for its extravagance, she’s constantly surrounded by flowers and gifts…”
“So what? What does it matter if Aria is having a wonderful time?”
Donabel cut them off.
She tilted her head slightly to one side.
“She’s a mage, isn’t she?”
The classroom fell silent at once.
……
“Well, it can’t be helped. It’s regrettable, yes, but we’re running late. Let’s proceed with class.”
Snap.
Donabel closed the roster. She picked something up from the pile of materials and looked toward the students.
“Basic Magic Combat.”
Her voice had changed.
This was no longer the flustered, breathless professor from moments before. Her voice was calm and steady, layered with weight and authority.
“Have any of you ever witnessed a true duel between real mages?”
No one answered.
“What spells they cast, how they overwhelm their opponents with magic. The razor-sharp intent behind it all, the endless tactics and stratagems.”
Donabel’s eyes gleamed like stars as she continued her explanation.
“Fortunately, through records preserved from the past, we can glimpse fragments of that very thing.”
She walked slowly across the platform.
“Before the Rabatier Empire took its present form, there existed an alliance wielding power formidable enough to rival this massive beast we see today. Does anyone know what I’m referring to?”
A moment of silence stretched across the room.
A student spoke hesitantly.
“The Three Kingdoms Alliance.”
“Correct.”
Donabel nodded.
“Three kingdoms sharing borders—Kaluack, Asina, and Velden. Their kings were all formidable mages with considerable military might. The Rabatier Empire waged a long war against them and faced no small hardship.”
She turned dramatically, like an actress on stage, and faced the opposite direction.
“But even they came to an end.”
Donabel’s voice dropped lower.
“During the fragmentation of the Three Kingdoms, the three kings, unable to trust one another, abandoned their realms and fled to plan for a future day. Pursued by the Rabatier Empire’s forces, the chaos was absolute—friend and foe indistinguishable in that moment of dire extremity.”
She stopped walking and shifted her expression.
“And then, at that critical juncture!”
The students hung on her every word.
“They encountered one another. On the Bosco Plain.”
Professor Donabel’s voice grew remarkably soft and dramatic. Masterful pacing.
“Two kings fleeing their own kingdoms happened to meet. The king of Kaluack and the king of Asina. And with identical forces, no less. Isn’t that a twist of fate?”
Donabel raised her fingers one by one.
“Two Knights. Two attendants. And one king.”
Even those who had heard this tale before hung on her words.
“On the Bosco Plain, two Great Mages clashed in a battle of staggering magnitude, and that record has been faithfully passed down through the ages. All the way to us.”
Donabel’s gaze swept slowly across the students.
“My lesson is simple.”
Donabel let the tension build, holding their breath.
“All of you will return to that day. To the Bosco Plain. To that moment—the Bosco Battle itself.”
The classroom fell silent.
No one spoke. The quiet was so complete you could hear the whisper of eyelids blinking. Every student’s gaze was fixed on Donabel at the lectern.
“Not that we’re actually going back in time or anything.”
Donabel added the clarification.
“Time Magic is strictly forbidden, after all! I simply want all of you to face that kind of situation.”
Laughter rippled through the classroom.
“Now, in the last lesson, I asked you to rank the students you’d least like to fight if you found yourselves in a conflict here in this classroom. Do you remember?”
Aion’s eyebrows lifted slightly.
‘So that happened.’
Aion had missed the previous class. He’d been recovering from the fire incident and couldn’t attend lectures.
“I won’t go into the full rankings, but the eight students who received the highest votes in that poll will take on the role of King in the Bosco Battle.”
Murmurs erupted.
“Eight kings?”
“Then what about the rest of us?”
“The others who were there that day.”
Donabel answered.
“Each match will have two Kings. Four Knights. And four Rooks.”
She spread all ten fingers wide.
“So each King fights in turn, one at a time?”
A student posed the question.
“No.”
Donabel shook her head at this inquiry.
“There’s only one match.”
“What? Why? Wouldn’t a fair evaluation require multiple rounds?”
“I’m sorry—what do you mean by that?”
She perched on the edge of the lectern, regarding the students before her.
“A single match is all I need to grasp everything about a student’s level of ability. How deeply you’ve thought, how well you’re developing as a mage.”
The student who’d asked remained frozen, mouth opening and closing soundlessly.
“And earning high marks in my class doesn’t mean you’ll graduate from Excyon Academy, and becoming an excellent mage is far from guaranteed by that alone.”
Donabel continued.
“My class and my evaluations are merely small guideposts to help you become a better mage. Does that make sense?”
“…Yes.”
“Good.”
Donabel rose from her seat.
“Let me explain the rules of the Bosco Battle once more. Knights can only attack. Rooks can only defend. Kings can do both. No weapons except the Staff. Simple enough, yes?”
Hmm….
She cleared her throat and continued.
“Last week, after class ended, I gave each of the eight Kings time to select their kingdom’s subjects. Their answers arrived not long ago.”
Donabel swept her hand lightly through the air.
A flutter of paper filled the room—
The documents on the desk rose in unison, scattering throughout the Classroom before landing precisely in each student’s hands.
“Professor, I have a question.”
A student holding the roster raised her hand.
“I wanted Aria assigned to my kingdom.”
“When multiple Kings requested the same person, I made the assignments as I saw fit.”
Donabel answered curtly.
“For your information, most of the Kings wanted Aria. She was quite popular, it seems.”
“I… I see.”
A soft click of disappointment echoed here and there.
Several students clicked their tongues in regret.
Aion looked down at the paper in his hands.
A single name was written at the top of the roster.
Cassius de Serban.
Below it, a list of kingdom subjects.
Aion found his own name. Then he scanned the names above and below it.
Aria di Valera. And two names he didn’t recognize.
Aion’s gaze drifted back to the top of the roster.
‘Cassius de Serban… who is that?’
But why would Cassius have chosen him, when he hadn’t even participated in the class?
“Now, for the rest of class, I want you all to break into your kingdoms and get acquainted. Your assessment is in three weeks, so you’ll be seeing each other for quite some time.”
***
When Aion moved to the location listed on his roster, three were already there.
He studied their faces carefully.
First, there was the man who appeared to be Cassius.
Blonde hair fell past his shoulders, and he stood with his arms crossed, gazing toward some distant point.
Strikingly handsome.
But something else caught the eye even more.
His clothing was peculiar.
He was barely clothed—just a rectangular undergarment clinging to him.
‘…The man’s mad.’
Perhaps that explained why he’d selected them.
The second figure wasn’t looking at Aion.
A female student with an enormous bear doll balanced on her lap, her face turned toward the toy so her expression remained hidden.
The last one at least looked halfway sane.
At least…
“Bababababababababan-gaw-wer….”
Aion revised his assessment.
The kingdom he belonged to consisted entirely of peculiar individuals.
None of the three were speaking to each other.
Even after Aion sat down, silence hung in the air for a moment.
The blonde student seated before him slowly lowered his gaze.
His eyes traced over Aion—from bottom to top, from top to bottom.
Then he opened his mouth.
“Ah.”
Wonder tinged his voice.
“My loyal subjects.”
He uncrossed his arms and spread them wide.
“At last we meet. I am Cassius, and from the moment our eyes first met, I sensed tremendous potential within you. Together, we shall overwhelm our enemies and drench them in terror.”
This man was now the king of Aion’s kingdom.
“First, you there! That overwhelming Flame Magic will paint the world in apocalypse—”
“I-I-I c-c-can’t h-handle F-Flame M-Magic l-like that?”
Silence.
Cassius blinked.
“…Right. That is, if you had mastered Flame Magic. But that’s purely hypothetical.”
The boy fell silent.
Cassius’s gaze shifted to the student sitting on the floor.
“And Claire. That mysterious aura of yours…”
“…….”
Claire’s doll lifted its head.
The large bear doll’s mouth moved.
“It’s Vera.”
The voice was low and dry.
She was clearly using Ventriloquism—the sound came from the girl’s direction, after all.
“Vera.”
“…The doll, you mean?”
“Me. …Not Claire.”
Cassius repeated the name to himself.
“…Vera. I see. Vera, your….”
“That’s enough.”
The doll lowered its head back onto the girl’s lap.
Cassius turned his attention to Aion last of all.
“And!”
His voice rose.
“Oh! The hero of the Lumenia fire incident! I’ve always admired your heroic deeds. Yes, Aion… uh… what was it.”
Aion regarded Cassius for a moment.
It didn’t seem right that someone who couldn’t even remember his name properly claimed to have always admired him.
He looked back down at the roster.
“Why did you pick us?”
Cassius opened his mouth to answer the question.
“I saw tremendous potential in all of you. We shall dominate and strike terror into every kingdom in this classroom!”
Just then,
“Cassius?”
Professor Donabel’s voice came from behind him.
Cassius’s mouth closed.
She walked toward them, holding the attendance roster, and spoke.
“You didn’t submit your roster until yesterday, so I took the liberty of assembling your kingdom’s members myself. How is it? Does it suit you?”
The classroom fell silent for a moment.
Cassius opened his mouth with a sullen expression.
“…No.”
The Talentless Mage Swallows a Catastrophic Future — Episode 23
Author
Wang Mozhi
Publisher
Daon Creative
Planning / Editing / Production
Yeon
Cover Design
Dali
UCI
G720:N+A036-20260706063.0023
ⓒ2026, Wang Mozhi
※ This e-book is a copyrighted work protected under the Copyright Law of the Republic of Korea.
No part or all of the contents 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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