The AI Archmage - Chapter 5

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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AI Archmage Episode 5

Sion Rostery’s reputation within the Blue Tower could be said to be nothing short of the worst.

Nevertheless, there were two main reasons why Sion had been fine until now.

The first was being born into the right family.

Among the mages in the Blue Tower, there was no one confident enough to mess with a member of the Rostery Family.

The second was not crossing the line of what was unbearable.

But today, Sion Rostery crossed that line.

He insulted Lumia Kabala, the idol of the Blue Tower, in front of several mages!

– Ah, this has to be dealt with.

This was the trigger that caused the anger of the Blue Tower mages who followed Lumia to exceed its critical point.

Among them, the most representative figure was Tult, a 3rd Circle mage.

Having studied at the Blue Tower for four years and established a solid position, he was filled with respect for Lumia and had no intention of overlooking that incident.

“Come out, Sion Rostery!”

He was confident.

After all, his justification for picking a fight with Sion was extremely valid.

While he wasn’t particularly righteous by nature, he wasn’t the type to bend his convictions either.

Following behind him, the Blue Tower mages who revered Lumia began to quietly gather.

Since there were virtually no mages in the Blue Tower who had good feelings toward Sion, this was a good justification.

“Standing here now is not just me, but the mages of this tower who are enraged by your shameless behavior!”

Just as Tult was about to continue his words.

Creak.

The door opened with a natural sound.

“…Huh?”

Since he hadn’t expected the door to open so easily, Tult involuntarily flinched.

The target of their resentment, Sion, smiled broadly and made an exaggerated gesture.

“There, I’ve opened it for you.”

“You… opened it?”

“My goodness. So many of you came. You really didn’t need to do that.”

Sion shrugged his shoulders with a completely unperturbed expression.

“Is this where the sordid bullying of a disliked student begins?”

“…Sordid?”

At Sion’s ridiculous nonsense, Tult was left dumbfounded.

‘What’s with this bastard?’

Did he just call this situation ‘sordid bullying’ with his own mouth?

It was absurd, but he was a proud mage of the Blue Tower.

Tult decided to attempt a conversation first.

“No. I’m standing before you now with legitimate justification. Logically speaking, the one who engaged in sordid bullying is you, Sion Rostery.”

“It’s fine. I was roughly reborn anew since yesterday. You could call it Sion 2.0, so to speak.”

“…”

“And first, in terms of justification, I didn’t really do anything wrong yesterday, did I?”

“What, you bastard?”

Tult’s face contorted at the boldly spouted nonsense.

“Yesterday! Have you forgotten that you dared to insult the Tower Master in front of us!”

“It wasn’t an insult, it was the truth, wasn’t it? If anything, shouldn’t the Tower Master be thanking me for pointing out the problems?”

“….”

“In the first place, don’t you think that if I hadn’t pointed it out there, it could have escalated into an even bigger problem?”

This is bad.

He’s crazier than I thought.

And was Sion Rostery always like this?

Tult felt cold sweat flowing at the shamelessness beyond his expectations and the unexpected situation.

“So, sophistry. You insulted the Tower Master with ridiculous logic. We cannot forgive that….”

“You don’t have the right to do that, do you?”

“….”

Is that wrong?

Come to think of it, that’s true.

Even if someone needs to be beaten up, it should be Lumia herself who does it, not him, just a mage belonging to the Blue Tower….

‘So, something’s strange?’

Tult unconsciously stammered as he spoke.

“You, you weren’t like this before.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Go wild saying you’ve been insulted like before! Threaten us unreasonably that you’ll crush us with the Rostery’s power!”

“Why would I?”

Sion snorted.

At that confident appearance, Tult hesitated, not knowing how to react.

Meanwhile, Sion’s mouth continued moving without rest.

“There’s no need to go wild, is there? Why would I need to provoke the other party with such barbaric reactions?”

“No, you weren’t like that! You were more… instinctive, like a beast! Remember, the memories of that day…!”

“I told you I was reborn.”

“Graaaah!”

Tult roared with an expression as if he might foam at the mouth any moment.

The Blue Tower mages behind him were also flustered by the unexpected situation.

To them, Sion asked with an amused expression.

“Anyway, when are you going to do it?”

“Do what?”

“The underhanded bullying.”

“Are we going to do it?”

“Aren’t you?”

“No….”

Feeling doubtful about the one-sided conversation, Tult spoke in a tired voice.

Until coming here, I was planning to hold him accountable for the grave sin of insulting the Tower Master.

But somehow… the longer the conversation continued, the more my boiling emotions cooled down.

“There’s no justification, damn it…”

“There’s plenty of justification. Have you forgotten all those countless atrocities I’ve committed against you all!”

“No, that’s… right, but…”

Tult continued with a gloomy voice.

“We need to be on the same page to do anything. This way, it looks like I’m just being unreasonable and picking a fight with you…”

“How pitiful.”

Sion shook his head while looking at Tult.

“You’ve already been defeated by me logically before even doing anything.”

“…”

It was infuriating, but it wasn’t entirely wrong, so he couldn’t argue back.

When everyone was hesitating, having nothing to say.

“Then it can’t be helped. I’ll give you all an opportunity.”

“What opportunity?”

“An opportunity to attack me with legitimate justification.”

“L-legitimate justification?”

Giving them justification? He couldn’t understand what Sion was talking about.

“How?”

“Now then, from now on.”

With those words, Sion set down a basket.

“One silver per attack magic spell.”

“…?”

At that moment, everyone present had the same thought.

What the hell is this bastard doing?

* * *

After pondering for a long time, Lumia reached a conclusion.

“…I should try talking to him one more time.”

No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t understand.

Moreover, she still wasn’t certain whether she could trust him.

Even if he hadn’t informed the Rostery Marquis Family yet, it was clear that Sion was a member of that family.

Then the question that arose here.

What exactly was the behavior Sion had shown all this time?

For a full three years, he had performed the role of the Blue Tower’s burden and a scoundrel pointed at by everyone.

The number of times Lumia had clutched the back of her neck because of Sion was countless.

But if all of that was an elaborate act, then what was it all for?

The Sion Rostery who had revealed himself before Lumia didn’t seem to have good feelings toward his family.

He had even said he had no intention of informing his family about her ‘research.’

That meant….

‘No way.’

At that moment, Lumia reached a certain conclusion.

‘All this time, he had no choice but to act that way?’

The Marquis Rostery Family may not have high-level mages, but they’ve established a strong position in the Magic World through their tremendous financial power.

As such, they’re not clean.

No, they’re far more complicated than most other noble families.

And if Sion Rostery harbored considerable resentment toward such family practices….

Perhaps Sion was in a situation where he had to thoroughly act like a scoundrel.

No, that would make sense.

After all, the skill to directly Dispel her magic wasn’t something that could be acquired overnight.

Then there was another problem to consider.

If he had hidden his true self from her for three years, why did he show his real nature now?

To understand all of this, she concluded that she needed to have another conversation with Sion.

“…Alright.”

Having reached her conclusion, she got up and was about to leave the room when—

Bang!

“Ah, Lumia…!”

Sub-Tower Master Serentia urgently opened the door and rushed in.

“What’s wrong?”

“S-Student Sion! Student Sion is right now….”

“…!”

Lumia froze in shock.

Could there already be trouble?

“Don’t tell me Student Sion was attacked…?”

“He’s inciting the Tower’s mages and extorting money from them!”

“…?”

Lumia, who was about to cast magic immediately, froze in place.

…He’s doing what?

* * *

“Great roots of the blue tree, please heed the will of dawn and bestow your blessing upon my hands….”

“Tedious and pedantic.”

Snap!

The moment Sion lightly flicked his finger, the magic the student was casting scattered completely.

“M-my magic…?!”

“That’s enough. Next.”

Sion tapped the basket and accepted the next applicant.

The students watching couldn’t help but realize by now.

‘That just now, wasn’t that Dispel?’

Nullification Magic that couldn’t be used unless there was a considerably large difference in skill level.

Though it was called nullification, it was essentially a technique of oppressing the weak by using computational ability several times faster than the opponent’s magic to crush them.

And the meaning was simple.

“That Sion Rostery… is at a much higher level than us?”

“No, what the hell…”

Sion crossed his arms and quietly waited for the next challenger.

‘Money comes in well.’

They say many a little makes a mickle.

Actually, 1 silver wasn’t even a little, but it was still decent.

He needed money as an individual, not support from Rostery anyway.

[Is it alright to reveal your skills like this, Human? No matter what, you had the image of an incompetent scoundrel until just a few days ago.]

‘It doesn’t matter.’

Sion answered decisively.

‘Rather, hiding it would be a loss. What am I, some night vigilante? Going around hiding my identity in the shadows?’

[That’s true too.]

‘Anyway, for trivial things, I just need to roughly set up a plausible explanation.’

Sion, who had already lived as Altair, knew that time was more precious than anything else.

Therefore, he didn’t want to waste time for pointless reasons.

[Then why are you putting on this farce?]

‘Because it’s fun.’

It was quite amusing to watch those youngsters desperately struggling to defeat him.

‘Making money and changing my image. It’s like throwing one stone and catching two goblins.’

[I won’t deny that.]

Sion put Akasha’s response behind him and checked the opponent who came up next.

That opponent was…

“You’ve finally come up.”

“…Sion Rostery.”

It was Tult, the student who had come to Sion as a representative.

He asked Sion with an expression of disbelief.

“Wh-what the hell did you do?”

“Well. I don’t think I’ve done anything problematic?”

“Your magical talent was definitely…!”

Tult shouted convulsively, and Sion’s response was predetermined.

“Aren’t you being too overconfident in your own talent? If senior couldn’t perceive my magical level, what would the answer be?”

“Th-that…”

Tult knew it too.

That Sion had reached a level that could make him ‘nothing more than that.’

No matter how much he wanted to deny it, he couldn’t deny this reality he had experienced firsthand.

“Hmm.”

Sion looked at Tult, who couldn’t refute his words, for a moment, then pushed the basket that had been placed on the ground behind him.

“I think I’ve earned enough money. Let’s make you, senior, the final challenger.”

“…!”

“But if it’s the final one, it should naturally be more special, shouldn’t it?”

Sion spread his hand as he said this.

At that moment, mana began to swirl from Sion’s hand.

And.

“…Huh?”

“【Mana Field】.”

Sion’s magic manifested without the process called ‘incantation’.

Splash!

Blue mana began to sweep around like crashing waves.

And for a moment, silence descended upon the area.

Because they couldn’t understand Sion’s actions.

It was Tult, his opponent, who broke that silence.

“No, incantation?”

Tult muttered blankly with an expression as if seeing something that couldn’t exist.

This wasn’t just his feeling, but the sentiment of everyone present.

“This is… impossible.”

Lumia Kabala, the Blue Tower Master and genius called the youngest to reach the 6th Circle, was also one of them.

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