Margrave’s Bastard Son was The Emperor - Chapter 667

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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 666. From the East
“…Does anyone know what this is?”
A triangular box covered in incomprehensible characters, three spheres tucked in a corner, and white paper.
The Mages gathered in a circle with their heads together, yet no clear answer emerged. Berik also sniffed at the spheres repeatedly, but shook his head in confusion, equally baffled.
“There’s something that smells like… something, but maybe not? I’m not sure. Ian, can I taste this?”
“Are you insane, you bastard! Put it down right now!”
Smack!
“Ow!”
Berik rolled across the floor after receiving a sharp flick to the head from the Mage, but I simply ignored him and stepped over him lightly.
After slowly changing my upper garment, I settled back down and examined the inside of the box. The Mages watched me expectantly, and soon began murmuring their own speculations.
“But seriously, what was Berik thinking when he saw this? How is this supposed to help? I have no idea what it’s even for.”
“Right. Berik, why did you bring this? You didn’t grab it by mistake, did you?”
“No way! It was definitely in the drawer. And there was a piece of paper that came with it originally, and I saw a sentence like that on it. Something about raising one level, and blah blah blah…”
“That ‘one level blah blah’ is what matters right now?”
“Oh, could it be a translation guide? If the characters written in here were converted to Gaia’s common tongue?”
“That’s possible. Berik! You didn’t bring that with you?”
“No. There’s nothing like that.”
“Honestly, you’re so scatterbrained! Go back and get it!”
“What do you know? I really thought I was going to die! And it burned down, so it’s gone now!”
At the mention of the Mage’s Forest burning, the Luswenan Mage froze. It was a place he had already left, yet it held his entire life within it. But it had burned and disappeared. He couldn’t help but feel a sense of loss and regret.
I approached him and gestured for him to come closer, then asked.
“Are you certain you’ve never seen anything like this in the Mage’s Forest?”
“Yes, though it was long ago… I’m certain. Given how exotic it looks, it seems to have come from another land. If I had to speculate further…”
“Beyond the Great Desert, the East that borders Blaster Sea.”
“Ah, yes, yes. I suspect that as well. Since we’ve never seen anything like it in Gaia…”
At the familiar place name, Berik’s ears perked up.
“Huh? Blaster? Isn’t that the place? Ian, remember when you were taking lessons from Bratz back then, and that teacher ran off in the middle of the night saying he was going there?”
“He went for research purposes.”
“That’s all the same thing. Anyway, that scholar who drew us the desert map. Right?”
“Your memory isn’t bad, Berik.”
If one of Ruswena’s mercenary Mages was from the East, I could deduce that new knowledge had entered through them.
With this newly discovered clue, the Mages searched their memories to recall if any of their opponents had exotic features.
“They all looked so distinctive that nothing really stands out.”
“Don’t people from the East usually have reddish skin?”
“Is that so? I wouldn’t know. I’ve never actually seen anyone from there.”
Toollun was also an unknown land, and a continent beyond the desert that bordered the sea was truly an impossibly distant place.
I looked around and issued instructions to the Mages.
“There may be old texts remaining somewhere in the mansion. Count Derga provided research support to the Tutor back then. Scatter and search. If there are any translated portions, we can cross-reference them to understand the contents of the box.”
“But that was more than ten years ago. Would any texts still remain?”
“They’re not outdated clothes or jewelry. If it’s Hena, she may have kept them organized rather than discarding them.”
If Ian says so, then that’s how it is. The mages rose one by one and divided up the areas, hanging faint mana spheres across the windows of the mansion.
“Let’s split into three sections: the main building, the annex, and the storage. We’ll focus on the study and search from left to right. Does everyone agree?”
“Yes. Let’s move.”
“Berik, Inma. Get up. How long are you going to lie there after taking a single blow?”
It was chaos in the dead of night. They rifled through bookshelves that reached the ceiling, opened mysterious boxes, descended deep into the storage, and brought out every scrap of paper they could find.
While the mages moved frantically, Berik continued to sniff at the sphere.
Then—
“Huh?”
It was the moment when the sun broke across the edge of the sky. The exhausted mages were scattered in corners, nodding off drowsily.
Someone let out a puzzled sound, then drew a breath from their core and shouted.
“I found it!”
“Cough, what? What did you find?”
“You found it? Where? Ugh, my throat hurts.”
A mage with dark circles under his eyes rushed toward Ian holding an old book. Ian, who had been examining the study shelves, heard his footsteps and descended the ladder.
“Ian! I found it! There are Eastern characters written here! On the left, there’s an interpretation in Bariel, and on the right, there are characters similar to those inside the box!”
“Oh, really! That’s it, inside the box!”
The mages cheered and embraced each other.
Ian silently pushed the display cabinet aside to clear space. Soon a pristine white wall was revealed, and without hesitation, he began copying the characters from inside the box in large letters onto it.
“Divide the books and each take a section. When you find characters that match what’s written here, figure out their meaning.”
“Yes, understood.”
Whoosh! Swish!
Ian filled the wall with neat handwriting, and the mages who had torn up and distributed the books quickly compared them, searching for matching characters.
“Found it! Second word of the first line—’to make.’ With the particle added before it, it’s estimated to mean ‘to make [something].'”
“The fifth word of the first line and the seventh and fifteenth words of the third line are identical. Please take note.”
“Hmm, I can’t see it. It seems there’s nothing corresponding to it in what I have.”
“If you don’t have it, go up front and add to the interpretation.”
“The fifth word of the fourth line—’incantation.’ More precisely, it seems to mean something like ‘to demand.'”
“No! I think ‘to beseech’ is the correct reading.”
Berik sat perched on the windowsill, watching them quietly. The sound of pages turning rapidly. Voices shouting from here and there that they’d discovered word meanings poured out.
Usually they seemed like blockheads no different from himself, but seeing them like this, they really were mages.
And at the center of it all was Ian. He rolled up his sleeves and constructed interpretations one by one.
Swish. Swish.
“Alright, that’s it.”
Finally, coherent sentences took shape. Though there were many gaps scattered throughout, it was certainly different from reading without understanding anything.
They stared at the wall with vacant eyes and murmured.
“Is… is this right?”
-This __ was made by an Eastern mage __. Its purpose is to divide the sixth sense into __, and further, to achieve a __ of a higher level. Have three subjects consume __ and combine their strength to create __. When you transcribe it onto ___, this __ will be able to __ a power close to __. The caution is that the greater the difference in __ of power, the more dangerous it becomes. And those who consume __ will need __ to recover. Finally, the time limit is within 100 years.
“There are quite a few blanks. Still, we can roughly understand it.”
“Right, so— yeah. Hmm. We can roughly grasp it.”
“But many important parts are missing. Given that there are cautions, it doesn’t seem like something to take lightly.”
Ian fell silent for a moment, as if organizing his thoughts. Then he murmured softly.
“…It’s a method to create new magical formations.”
“Pardon? What do you mean by that?”
Creating new magical formations? Was that even possible…?
“Ah, yes! That’s right. You’re correct, Ian! It’s almost identical to the origins of magical formations passed down since ancient times.”
Magical formations are created through the combined energies shared by the Sage Mages, along with the principles of nature, moments of destiny, and the harmony and concentration of power.
Depending on the Sage Mages who originated the magical formations, they are divided into advanced, intermediate, and basic magic, and as these were transmitted across eternal time, they sparked the development of later mages.
“However, there are no records of what happened after the Sage Mages created the magical formations.”
“Hmm. So this is perhaps the material used to create those magical formations, something like that?”
“Rather than that… it seems more like a device that allows temporary power to be shared.”
“The duration is a hundred years? That’s quite a long time, isn’t it?”
“Probably not. That duration likely doesn’t mean what we think. In any case, what’s certain is that we can temporarily use power beyond what we currently possess. Right?”
“Interpretively speaking, yes, but it doesn’t seem like there would be no side effects.”
“What is it! Don’t just understand among yourselves—explain it to me too.”
Berik, who had been listening quietly, began scratching his head in confusion. At that, the exhausted mages all turned to him with sparkling eyes.
“Our useful, foolish dog! The mages rushed to Berik and embraced him, patting his head and calling him good.”
“Berik, listen carefully. Magic, in the end, is manifested through the inherent power of a mage. And a magical formation is literally a ‘incantation’ that draws that power outward more precisely and reliably. Do you understand so far?”
“Okay. So that’s why Ian sometimes destroys things all over the place without even using a magical formation? I get it now.”
“Within each magical formation passed down through generations, the wisdom of at least one mage is embedded. We can channel our magical power through formations because of the efforts of those who came before us.”
“So a magical formation is like a shortcut? By having past mages create magical formations, we can easily and quickly unleash our inherent magical power through them?”
“Exactly! That’s the principle!”
The mages’ nostrils fluttered slightly. They were clearly excited.
“If we create a new magical formation containing Ian’s power and we use it—”
“We’ll be able to stand against Forbidden Magic! Winning or losing is a secondary concern; the important thing is that our magic will finally work against the Forbidden Mages!”
“Ahhhhh! Where is this! Where is this!”
Ian’s ability to stand against Forbidden Mages isn’t solely because he’s strong. It’s because his very existence possesses the same quality of power as a Forbidden Mage.
That’s precisely why all the mages, including Heil, couldn’t inflict even a single wound despite their desperate efforts and struggles.
“Isn’t it dangerous? Will you all be alright?”
“It’s not based on Forbidden Magic, but on Ian’s magic. More precisely, we’ll be able to wield ‘Ian’s power that can counter Forbidden Magic.'”
One mage extended two fingers and brought them together. When they adjusted their position slightly, they fit together perfectly.
At the very least, they would become capable of restraining Ian when he fights a Forbidden Mage, or attempting to attack.
“But can we trust it? We don’t know who made it, or how it even works.”
“There’s nothing to worry about.”
It was Ian. He answered while holding three spheres in his hand.
“Anyone capable of creating a device of this caliber would be among the few in the Eastern regions. We should be able to find records once we reach the Imperial Palace.”
And above all, it was a far safer and more peaceful method compared to the Mage Disciples using Forbidden Magic to win.
At Ian’s clear decision, the mages crowded around him, and Ian picked up one sphere and brought it to his mouth.
“Ian, wait. Allow me to try it first.”
It was Heil who stopped him.
In terms of magical power, he was second only to Ian. Heil swallowed one sphere without hesitation. Then the effects immediately became apparent.
A deep, resonant hum.
Golden eyes gleamed with brilliant luminescence despite no mana being channeled. As the Mages marveled at the phenomenon, I followed suit and placed the orb into my mouth.

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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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