A Talentless Mage Devours a Disaster-Class Future - Chapter 35

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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 35

Afternoon sunlight settled evenly across the Courtyard.
Aion walked alongside Laila and Ruana through Exion’s Courtyard.

“Laila, want to grab lunch outside today? I know this amazing pie shop!”
“Sure. I like pie.”
“Really? That’s great! Aion, want to come too? …If you say yes, we might actually let you tag along.”
…

Aion’s mind was far too cluttered at the moment.

The time remaining until the Bosco Battle—and what progress he needed to make within it to secure victory.

Whether the Celestial Movement Technique alone could land a decisive blow.

And what in the world had happened between Cassius and Aria.

All of it tangled together in his head like a skein of thread.

“…Aion?”
…
“Hey, Aion!!”
“Ah…”

Aion turned his head, reacting a beat too late.

Ruana stood with her arms crossed, looking up at him with unmistakable displeasure.

“Seriously, you weren’t listening to a word I said, were you? I asked if you’d come to the pie shop with us!”

【Flame: This girl’s got lungs on her. Does she ever get tired? I’ve never seen her mouth stop moving.】
【Life: Oh, how wonderful! She’s so lively and charming. Aion’s blending in better with his peers now—even his gloomy aura is lifting a bit.】
【Earth: Friends, my foot. Does that boy look anything like he belongs with these sprightly schoolgirls? He’s prematurely old—ancient, even.】
【Life: …So just old then, isn’t he?】

Aion turned to Ruana and apologized.

“…Ah. My apologies.”
“Never mind the apology.”

Ruana’s eyes swept across his face, and she tilted her head.

“Is something bothering you lately?”

Aion paused before answering, then shook his head indifferently.

“Just preparing for the upcoming Evaluation has kept my mind busy, that’s all.”
“Oh, that’s right! Aria’s participating, isn’t she?”
“…I never said that.”
“The whole academy’s already buzzing about it. I bet there’s a crowd of students trying to figure out when you’re training. Aria’s popular with the girls just as much as the boys!”

Ruana clasped her hands together in mock prayer as she spoke.

“If only I could live for just one day as Aria…!”

Then she whipped her head toward Aion and fired off a question.

“Surely Aria didn’t sing to you, did she?”
“…Yes, she did.”
“Phew~ Thank goodness.”

Whatever that meant, Aion nodded along before his gaze shifted to Ruana.

“Ruana, how about you?”
“……Huh?”
“Everything all right?”

It was an abrupt question, but Ruana’s confusion ran even deeper.

“S-suddenly? …Why are you asking that?”
“No reason. Just seems like we only ever talk about me.”

Her ears flushed pink, yet she answered all the louder.

“…There’s nothing wrong! Not that you’d listen anyway!”
“I’m sorry about just now. …The pie shop another time.”
“Tch! Fine, fine! Then Laila, shall we go together?”

Laila bobbed her head eagerly, nodding several times over.

“Yes, I like pie. I like pie very much.”

Ruana’s face brightened in an instant.

“Then we’re off!”

Laila and Ruana walked away from Aion.
Once they’d put some distance between them, Ruana glanced back over her shoulder and stuck out her tongue.

“There!”

She seemed disappointed that Aion hadn’t come along to the pie shop.

Rustle—

“Ah… youth indeed.”
“…!?”

A man pushing himself up from among the bushes in the courtyard, rustling through the foliage.

“…Inspector?”
“Hahaha! It’s been far too long, Aion. How wonderful to see you again!?”

Woof—!
Woof-woof—!

Bark barked in response to the lie.

“…That wasn’t exactly a lie just then, rather a… well, you might call it a social courtesy.”

Dressed in a shabby long coat with a wrinkled hat, leaves clinging thickly to the brim, he cut the figure of an unmistakable eccentric.
Raven shrugged without a trace of shame, brushing the leaves from his hat with casual flicks.

Special Inspection Bureau of the Magic Council—Raven.

Never did he imagine their next encounter after the Arson Case questioning would come to this.

Aion offered a brief, bemused bow, then fell into step beside me as we began walking through the Courtyard.

“So, which of the two is your sweetheart?”
“…I beg your pardon?”
“My instincts are telling me. Student Aion’s taste runs toward the quiet, reserved type!”

Faced with the inspector’s utterly shameless assumption, Aion stared at him with an expressionless face before answering.

“I suspect your investigation will yield results exactly as predictable as this conversation.”
“Pffhahahaha!”

Raven doubled over, clutching his belly and erupting into hearty laughter at Aion’s barb.

“You’re quite sharp, student Aion! Well, romantic intuition and investigative instinct are two different beasts, aren’t they? Anyway… shall we finally get down to the real business?”

That was the exact moment he began to broach the subject in earnest.

A sharp, cutting gaze pierced the back of Aion’s head.

Open, brazen hostility—a rudely intrusive presence that shattered the thread of conversation.

……

Finding the source of that gaze was simple enough.
From across the Courtyard, Renar’s group—walking in a tight cluster—had spotted Aion and now wore expressions of unmistakable displeasure, their mouths twisted in disdain.

Raven was not the sort to miss such blatant hostility. He halted mid-sentence, his eyes flicking between Renar’s crowd and Aion in turn, then let out a soft chuckle as he inquired.

“Seems you’re quite worn down, student Aion. That kind of animosity—is it lingering from the Fire Incident?”
“It began that way, but at this point, I’m uncertain.”

Aion withdrew his gaze calmly as he replied.
It could stem from his entanglement with Aria di Valera, but there was no reason to elaborate for the inspector’s benefit.
Faced with Aion’s cryptic answer, Raven did not press further, instead returning leisurely to his main point.

“Well then, shall we return to what I was saying? The matter of the Flame Rune investigation, that is. Progress has been painfully slow. Finding out how such quantities of runes were smuggled in has proven far more difficult than anticipated.”

In the heart of the Courtyard, teeming with passing students, Aion’s eyes narrowed as he glanced about.

“Is it wise to discuss matters of such importance so openly, in the middle of a thoroughfare?”

Raven laughed with leisurely indifference, as though the stares of others were beneath his notice.

“It hardly matters. These are mere students barely free of their downy feathers, and I’ve yet to uncover anything concrete anyway. What’s to worry about?”

Whether he truly knew nothing or was merely shamming ignorance proved difficult to discern.

Yet Raven’s eyes—cool and measured—belied the casual ease with which he thrust his hands into the pockets of his worn coat.

“But there is one thing: it’s possible the perpetrator of this dreadful arson is an insider.”
“Didn’t you mention that last time?”
“…Did I? Well, I examined the fortnight before and after the incident, and there aren’t many clues remaining. At this rate, I can’t deploy my abilities properly, you understand.”

Aion murmured, his chin resting on his palm.

“Identifying the culprit won’t be easy, then.”
“Indeed. The arsonist’s motive, how they smuggled in such quantities of Flame Runes into Exion—everything is tightly interwoven. Unraveling just one thread would expose the rest naturally, but… beginnings are always the hardest.”

Raven tilted his head slightly toward Aion, his voice dropping lower.

“In fact, at times like these, the tedious approach is often the right one.”
“The tedious approach?”
“I’m going to examine every shipment brought into Exion over the past month. It’ll be a long campaign, but that’s something we’ll have to prepare for. So here’s the thing….”

He winked at Aion with one eye, then asked.

“You’re on my side, aren’t you, Aion?”

Aion regarded Raven with an expressionless face for a moment, then shifted his gaze to Bark before responding.

“Don’t you ever tire of testing me? And I suppose you were hoping Bark would react to my lie.”
“…What were you doing before you came here, Aion?”

Aion turned the question back on him.

“What made you ask something like that?”
“Curiosity. Every so often you display such sharp perception that it catches me off guard.”
“…It doesn’t sound like a compliment.”
“Well, in any case. I do trust you, Aion. So I was hoping you might help me out.”

Aion nodded.
If it concerned the Arson Case, it was something that touched him deeply.

“I’d like you to watch the people around you carefully. For instance….”

Raven selected one name from a few that flickered through his mind.

“Someone like Kael Pairon?”
“…Him again? I thought he’d been cleared of suspicion.”
“No one can be cleared until the full truth of the incident comes to light. Since I’ve decided to trace the case back to its origins, I intend to examine every possibility.”

Raven finished speaking and turned, his weathered long coat swirling around him.
Then, in a natural motion, he glanced back at Aion and spoke.

“Then, I’m counting on you.”

***

Tuesday morning arrived. After the Basic Magical Circle Design lecture ended, Helsen swept his gaze across the students.

“Then, I’ll see you all next week.”

Murmur, murmur—

The moment the Basic Magical Circle Design lecture concluded and Aion rose from his seat.

Flutter—

A note slipped from the chair.
Aion bent down and picked it up.
When he unfolded the creased paper, a single short sentence was written there.

– After the Basic Magical Circle Design lecture ends, follow Kael.

Like most notes of this kind, it bore no sender’s name.

‘…Raven?’

The name surfaced in his mind for a moment, but he couldn’t be certain.
Aion folded the note and slipped it into his pocket, then surveyed the lecture hall.
Already, students were slipping away one by one.

And among them, Kael moved with a stiffness that seemed deliberately out of place.

―
Then, I’d appreciate your help?

Aion didn’t strictly need to honor Raven’s request, yet something gnawed at him—a thread of unease he couldn’t quite ignore.

What if he let this chance slip? What if he never learned the truth about the Dormitory Fire Incident?

That thread of unease pushed him forward.

‘…There’s no real reason not to follow him. And Raven did say something worth considering.’

If it looked dangerous, he could always back off.
And besides—this was Exion. Nowhere else to hide if trouble came.

Aion made his decision swiftly and rose from his seat.

He had confidence in his ability to track someone without being seen.

The barren snowfields of the Northern Region.
For a warrior who had stalked beasts through drifts and cut down enemies’ breath in blizzards, pursuing a single figure through a hallway was as simple as breathing.

Crunch, crunch.

The footsteps ahead—Kael’s footsteps—bore the unmistakable mark of haste.

He clutched something tightly in his grasp, and at every corner his eyes darted nervously about.

But Aion never once entered Kael’s line of sight.
Not even the rustle of fabric—only the wind, swallowing every sound.
As the crowds thinned, Aion grew more careful still.

Before long, Kael’s footsteps stopped before a shadowed building at the edge of Exion.

The Third Beast Enclosure.
Where combat-training creatures were kept.

‘Why here…?’

From near the entrance: the thick, musky stench of beast, the damp reek of earth.

It was the same wild scent that had clung to the Bicorn when it had rampaged on Aion’s first day at Exion.

Beyond regular maintenance hours, the enclosure lay dark—pitch black, lights extinguished.
Kael scanned the perimeter one more time with sharp, darting eyes, then pushed open the locked door and slipped inside.

Creak―

In the instant before the door closed, Aion flowed silently through the gap like smoke.

“…….”

Inside the enclosure hung a heavy silence. A space where no light ventured.

– Grrrrr…

Only the rough, measured breathing of the beasts drifted up now and then from behind the cages, a low rumble that filled the dark.

Moving slowly to avoid detection made it difficult to gauge where Kael had gone ahead.

But Aion was in no hurry to catch up with him.
He slipped deeper into the enclosure, his presence erased.

Shriek―!

That was when it happened.
From the darkness, a vicious blow screamed toward Aion’s face—raw, brutal force, no magic or blade, just the crushing weight of a beast’s strike.

Whoosh―!

Aion didn’t flinch. By instinct alone, he twisted his torso and rolled across the ground, slipping the trajectory of the attack.

Crouched low like a predator, Aion squinted into the dark to identify his attacker.

“You dare follow Kael Fairon? You’ve got nerve, I’ll give you that!”

From the shadows came a voice grinding through gritted teeth.
Fury poured from every word—the indignation of someone whose tail had been caught. Aion answered with ice in his tone.

“I could say the same. What exactly are you doing in a place like this?”
“Wait… that voice?”

In the darkness, Kael’s breath caught short.
Never in his wildest dreams had he expected his pursuer to be Aion Iscar—and he’d opened his mouth to speak, bewildered, when it happened.

Clang―!

Clang, clang, clang!

A thunderous crash erupted from the enclosure entrance and passages beyond. Five heavy iron gates—the kind used to cage beasts—descended in rapid succession, sealing off every trace of their escape route.

The path they had just unknowingly walked.

“…!”

Trapped inside bars on all sides.
Aion fixed Kael with a cutting gaze through the darkness and spoke.

“Answer me. Who were you supposed to meet here?”
“Hah…”

A brief silence followed Aion’s question.
Then Kael let out a bitter, hollow laugh.

“Now I understand how all of this is connected.”

Whack―!

Kael hurled the paper bundle he’d been holding straight at Aion’s chest.
As Aion instinctively snatched it, Kael conjured flame in his palm.

The fire crackled…

“Want to know who I was supposed to meet? See for yourself.”

In the firelight that pushed back the dark, Aion read what was written on the paper.
The moment his eyes took in the words, the composed young man’s brow twitched—barely perceptible, but undeniable.

– I have something to say about the Fire Incident. Wait for me in the Third Beast Enclosure after class.

Below it, a name written in small letters.

– Aion Iscar –

Talentless Mage Episode 35

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

UCI
G720:N+A036-20260706063.0032

ⓒ2026, Wang Mozhi

※ This e-book is protected under the copyright law of the Republic of Korea.
No part or whole of this work may be reproduced or modified 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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