A Talentless Mage Devours a Disaster-Class Future - Chapter 37

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

Chapter 37

A few days earlier.

The day Renar de Valois had come looking for Kael Pairon.

“That’s… rather intriguing, actually.”

The corners of Kael Pairon’s mouth curved upward in a slant smile.
Renar de Valois, reading that expression as a sign of agreement, stepped closer and lowered his voice.

“I’m laying the groundwork to put that arrogant wretch down for good.”
“Put him down?”
“Yes. Either make him crawl out of Exion on his own two feet… or leave him broken enough never to swagger again.”

Renar’s eyes glinted with damp malice.
Kael regarded him with an impassive face, then frowned slightly.
He’d thought the man meant merely to break the boy’s pride, to bring him groveling underfoot and docile.

But this went further than he’d reckoned. The glint in Renar’s eyes spoke of expulsion from Exion itself—and beyond that, physical harm.

Kael’s eyes turned glacial as he asked the question.

“Why go this far?”

Renar answered that query with a grin, as though it were obvious.

“I’m like you. I can’t stand him. The mere fact that he breathes and exists before me makes my skin crawl.”

Like you.

Those four words scraped across Kael’s nerves like a blade.

“A nothing! Him getting attention, being acknowledged—it sickens me. That recognition belongs to me!”

Renar’s face twisted as he spilled the words through gritted teeth. Only then did Kael truly understand.

What that vile emotion he’d harbored toward Aion had truly looked like.

‘No. It’s different.’

Kael’s instinct recoiled in denial.
His own feelings were nothing like the sordid sentiment this wretch wore so plainly.

But.

‘No… is it?’

A single word—horrible even to name—circled through his mind.

Inferiority Complex.

While Kael turned that word over in silence, Renar, oblivious to his turmoil, rattled on with visible glee.

“Mark and I had grand designs from the moment we enrolled. The ambition to rule Exion—a miniature of the magical society—with our own hands.”
“…Quite the lofty vision.”
“Ha ha… Indeed. In the end, it comes down to trampling every last one of those so-called geniuses who’ve gathered here from across the realm beneath our feet.”

Renar drew closer with an oily grin, taking another step forward.

“The Pairon Family, no less. It’ll be reassuring to have you along. A young prodigy from the Pairon Marquessate, renowned across the Continent for Flame Magic.”

Even as he spoke, he circled slowly around Kael, eyeing him with a sideways glance.

“Still, it’s a bit disappointing, isn’t it?”
“…What?”

The unexpected words that fell from his lips made Kael pause for a moment.

“Well… to be honest, there was such a fuss before you even enrolled. The prodigy of the Pairon Family, they said. But now that I see you, there hasn’t been anything particularly remarkable about you so far, nothing that lives up to the rumors. It seems like such a waste.”

In that instant, Kael’s eyes turned glacial.

Renar failed to notice the shift and pressed on.

“Not that I dislike you, mind you. I think highly of your potential, Kael. It’s just that geniuses like Nayar and Yasmin are already making names for themselves, aren’t they? And Dorothy van Meyer—she goes without saying. Honestly, when compared coldly to them….”
“It seems that mouth of yours doesn’t know how to stop once it starts.”
“Wh… what?”

Renar flinched at the sharp edge in Kael’s voice.

“What… did you just…?”
“Both you and that Mark fellow who sent you seem to be rather dim. The fact that someone like you showed up at a negotiation says as much.”

At those words, Renar ground his teeth and asked.

“…Can you stand by what you just said?”

Kael spoke in a low, frigid tone.

“Cowards.”

He rose slowly to his feet, looking down at Renar. The nauseating revulsion that had surfaced when confronting the terrible inferiority complex that dwelt within him now crystallized into a cold edge directed at this contemptible insect before him.

“One thing I should clarify, though.”

A truth that needed correcting.

“I was never interested in such a sordid scheme to begin with. I only heard about your pathetic little machinations out of curiosity. So don’t torture yourself over failing to convince me, will you? I wonder—will that Mark fellow give you a proper beating?”
“Y… you bastard.”

The moment a cold sneer crossed Kael’s lips—

Screech-screech-screech-screech!

A heavy Training Iron Sphere that had been lying quietly on the floor began to vibrate with an eerie, grinding sound.

Then—

Whoooooosh!

The iron sphere shot forward and stopped precisely in front of Renar’s face.

“Unfortunate, isn’t it?”
“Ah… aaahhh…!”
“If I were just a bit more skilled with magic, this iron sphere would have crushed your skull in.”

…silence.

Renar de Valois stumbled backward in horror.

Boom—

Boom-boom…

Kael Pairon dropped the iron sphere to the floor and turned slowly, his voice cutting like a blade.

“Get out. You’re nothing but garbage—no pride as a mage, no pride as nobility.”
“You… you’ll regret this. When Mark finds out—”
“Mark, Mark. Here I am, and all I know is the name Mark. I still haven’t heard yours. What is it?”

Renar de Valois had no choice but to give his own name.

“…Renar. Renar de Valois.”
“Ah, so that noble name at last. Very well, Renar de Valois. Let’s see what you can do.”
“What?”

Kael Pairon’s mouth twisted into a smirk.

“Make me regret it, if you can.”

***

Screech—!

The scene rewinds slightly.

Kael Pairon’s right arm, wrapped in metal and swollen to enormous size from striking the Salamander, gleamed in the light.
It was magic Aion had never seen before.

‘Not Flame Magic?’

There was no time for confusion. Aion understood instantly what needed to be done.

“Aion!”

With the shout, Kael Pairon’s body jerked toward Aion.

The Heavenly Movement Technique had activated again.

Whoosh—!

This time, prepared, Kael Pairon rolled and landed smoothly beside Aion.

Splash!

Both turned and began running again.

Aion and Kael Pairon tore through the labyrinthine passages like the hunted.

“Gasp… gasp… How much longer do we have to keep running?”

Kael Pairon gasped desperately, his lungs burning as if they might tear.

“Until it gives up the chase… gasp… on us.”

Aion too was breathing hard, eyes fixed ahead as he ran.

How many corners had they turned in the maze of tangled passages?
The scorching heat that had been snapping at their heels and the predatory presence that had threatened to tear their eardrums suddenly began to fade, as though it had all been a lie.

All that remained in the winding corridor was the ragged breathing and heavy footfalls of two people.

“Hah… hah… where is it?”
“Its presence… it’s gone.”
“…Did we lose it?”

Kael Pairon slowed his pace, his voice tinged with relief.
But Aion did not answer.
There was no way a presence that massive could simply vanish without a trace.

Aion’s eyes fixed on something ahead, boring into the darkness.

“…Above.”
“What…?”

Snap!

Aion shoved Kael’s body away with brutal force, using the recoil to hurl himself backward as well.

Crash-!!

With a sound that shattered eardrums, the ceiling and floor where they had been standing moments before exploded simultaneously.

The massive claws of the Salamander tore through the thick steel plating as though it were tissue paper, pounding the ground with savage force.

“Ahhhhh!”

The world inverted.

Unable to withstand the impact of the Salamander’s strike, the corridor’s floor collapsed entirely, caving in on itself.

Rumble—!

Amidst the falling steel panels and debris, their bodies plummeted into an abyss with no visible bottom.

Thud… thud…

If they hit the ground from this height, there would be nothing left to recover—instant death was certain.
While Kael thrashed helplessly in the void, losing all orientation, Aion forced his eyes wide open, scanning frantically around him.

Through the darkness, a narrow metal railing from the lower level protruded precariously along the wall’s edge.

‘There!’

Aion stretched out his hand into empty space, gripping his Mana with desperate force.

Heavenly Movement Technique.

As though an invisible giant hand had seized them both, a powerful force yanked them sharply toward the railing.

Whoosh—

Their bodies, which had been plummeting vertically through the air, jerked sharply sideways and were hurled roughly onto the narrow metal railing of the Beast Breeding Ground’s lower level.

Crash!

Bang—!

“Grrgh…!”
“Hark!”

He barely avoided plummeting all the way to the bottom, but the violent collision with the metal railing left every bone in his body screaming.

In the very moment he crashed into the railing, both Aion and Kael felt a bone-chilling cold so overwhelming it froze their spines solid.

“Screeeeee!”

The terrible cold surging from below made even the Salamander cry out in agony.
The beast, which had been spewing heat of thousands of degrees, hastily retreated upward, yanking its claws free—overpowered by such crushing, suffocating cold.

Whiiiine—!

Shrieeeek—!

A bone-cutting wind swept through the immense ceiling hole the Salamander had recklessly torn open, wailing with a grotesque, otherworldly cry as it poured out.

“Hah… hah….”

Two figures clinging to the narrow metal railing exhaled thick white clouds of breath.
The sulfurous stench and the oppressive heat that had choked them moments before were gone without a trace.

“Wh… what is this place…?”

Kael trembled like an aspen leaf, his words barely a murmur.
Frost-covered walls on all sides, a sickly blue void. A sector entirely unlike the ordinary Beast Breeding Ground—utterly alien.

“Damn it, I think I know what this is.”
“……”
“It’s where they pen creatures from the frozen regions. Cursed luck—or actually, maybe it’s a blessing? At least the Salamander gave up on us because of this. Isn’t it?”

Though Kael’s tone carried a forced jest, Aion’s eyes had gone cold and hard.

Above, a distant, gaping hole in the ceiling concealed a burning catastrophe. Below, a frozen abyss with no visible bottom. Trapped—no escape—a perfect, sealed chamber of ice. Desperation incarnate.

“You said you came from the Northern Region, right? Hah… I’ve got some tolerance for cold… hah… damn it, this is… this is too much…?”

As he spoke, frost began to settle on Kael’s eyebrows.

“If we can just hold on thirty minutes in this place. Or twenty….”
“No.”

Aion spoke with absolute finality.

“We can’t endure this.”
“…What?”
“Cold like this—we won’t last five minutes.”

He knew cold the way others knew their own homes. He had hunted on blizzard nights without hesitation.

And because of that, Aion was certain.

This cold transcended all reason.
Delay meant death. Without question.

“What do you…?”

Whoosh—!

Crack!

Kael lunged to conjure Flame Magic, but Aion seized his wrist and held him back.

“Don’t waste your Mana.”
“Damn it! Then what do you suggest?”

Aion’s gaze swept across the ceiling, cold and measured.

“…It can’t be. It isn’t, is it?”

Aion’s reply confirmed what Kael had begun to dread.

“We fight.”

Kael’s mouth twisted into a grimace.

“…You’re joking.”

In the chaos, a red system window materialized before Aion’s eyes, blinking urgently.

It was the same warning that had appeared during the dormitory fire.

Ding!

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[!] A new Quest has been assigned.
[!] You stand at a Crossroads of Fate.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
……

The Talentless Mage Swallows a Calamitous Future — Episode 37

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

UCI
G720:N+A036-20260706063.0037

ⓒ2026. Wang Mozhi

※ This e-book is protected under the Copyright Law of the Republic of Korea.
No part of this work may be reproduced, adapted, or redistributed in any form without the permission of the author and publisher.

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