The AI Archmage - Chapter 90

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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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AI Grand Mage Episode 90

What is a field trip?
The students opened their eyes, each wrestling with the same question, as consciousness returned.
None of them appeared to be injured.
“H-here is…….”
“What? A dungeon?”
The students looked around in bewilderment.
“Does this mean our teacher is assigning us to traverse a dungeon overrun with monsters?”
“Even so, would he really do that?”
“What? You still don’t know Sion? Poor lost soul.”
“Is that so?”
The conversation continued, perfectly ordinary and yet somehow absurd.
Though nothing here was truly certain, the students were convinced in their hearts that Sion had indeed hurled them into a dungeon.
As for Sion, the very subject of their speculation—
“Ah, blegh, how peaceful.”
He was shaking his head, remarkably fulfilling their expectations even as he did so.
[Human, isn’t peace a good thing?]
“No, they need a certain degree of danger, or those fools won’t claw their way to becoming stronger.”
[…….]
“Besides, if I’m confident they’ll all survive and leave, feeling somewhat disappointed is only natural.”
[That’s…… natural?]
Akasha was incredulous, but decided to nod nonetheless.
After all, reasoning with this human would be pointless anyway.
[What will you do now?]
“Analysis, first.”
With that, Sion surveyed his surroundings. Nothing immediately obvious stood out.
Yet.
‘This facility has a strangely familiar quality to my technique…….’
More precisely, it felt like an imitation of his technique.
Familiar, yet unsettling.
“Teacher, can you discern where we are?”
Tult approached Sion and asked carefully.
Sion stared out into the distance for a moment before speaking.
“I’m still figuring it out.”
“……Yes?”
“I have a suspicion, but I prefer not to speak until I’m certain.”
At that, Tult stared at him quietly for a moment, then suddenly slapped his own cheek.
Smack!
“What are you doing?”
“Ah, my faith in you was just being tested, so I gave myself a little tap.”
“I see.”
Faith has its own logic, after all.
Sion tapped his shoulder lightly and continued.
“In any case, don’t worry. None of you will die on my watch.”
“Yes, understood.”
Tult, now growing accustomed to Sion’s manner of speaking, nodded easily enough.
It meant he’d see them through safely, bodies intact.
With his mental interpreter engaged, Tult accepted this understanding.
“By the way, has anyone from the Red Tower or any external force ever approached you?”
“No one has, specifically.”
“Hmm, I see.”
Sion nodded.
‘This is certainly no ordinary space.’
Any high mage of considerable skill would be startled by the strangeness of this place.
For one thing, this location didn’t exist in the waking world.
To put it plainly, this entire vast expanse could be called one enormous Subspace.
A dimension set apart from reality itself.
This place had clearly been crafted with extraordinary care.
“Indeed, when I consider who could create such an absurd space, no one comes to mind except the Grand Mage.”
‘Belusian, most likely. That bastard’s always had a gift for spatial magic.’
Akasha nodded at his words. Sion was right.
True to his assessment, Belusian was a mage skilled in illusion and space magic. He saw multiple possibilities where others saw none, and because of it, his thinking was remarkably open-minded compared to other mages.
‘If only he weren’t a Tower Master by birth, he’d have wandered rootless through the world.’
But he must have had his reasons for suppressing his natural disposition and settling in one place.
Sion didn’t know the details, nor did he particularly need to.
“There are signs of life beyond that point. Given the circumstances, I believe it to be someone related by blood to the human.”
“I see.”
Then we should retrieve them first. Everything else can be confirmed afterward.
The moment that thought crossed his mind, he stepped forward.
Crack!
— Welcome, descendants of the future.
An old man suddenly materialized before them.
Given that his entire body was translucent, he appeared not to be human but rather an illusion.
And the moment Sion saw that old man’s face—
“Damn it.”
His expression twisted involuntarily.
Akasha, meanwhile, spoke with interest.
“Oh, it’s Altair. The fidelity of this reproduction is quite remarkable, isn’t it?”
“Be quiet.”
Sion spoke quietly, his face buried in his hands.
The students, for their part, looked thoroughly confused.
“What, what is this?”
“That old man is… what exactly…?”
Those among them with sharper instincts, however, recognized the old man’s identity and could not hide their shock.
“C-could it be… that person?”
“Altair?”
“Altair?! The first Workshop Union Leader?!”
The students began to murmur among themselves.
And simultaneously, the words that came from ‘Altair’s’ mouth deepened Sion’s anguish.
— I am Altair the Omniscient, he who has mastered all knowledge in this world.
“…”
Sion quietly charged his magic at those words. All knowledge in the world, indeed.
No matter how confident one is, you’d never indulge in such narcissism.
“Never?” Akasha asked, her tone laden with disbelief.
Sion wanted to shout back inwardly.
‘If it were me, I would have said it as having mastered ‘nearly’ all knowledge in the world.’
“Ah, yes.”
So that was what he meant.
Thinking that perhaps her lack of human sensibility was to blame, Akasha shook her head.
Of course, regardless of what Sion thought, ‘Altair’ simply continued speaking.
— This place is a repository where my great knowledge sleeps. I have waited for countless ages for descendants such as you to discover it.
“D-descendants…!”
Eira, who besides Sion and Akasha would know Altair best, gasped sharply.
Sion, meanwhile, folded his arms and watched quietly, curious to see where this would go.
— Of course, my brilliant mind is not something you descendants could easily accept. I am a genius with the greatest intellect of all time—there is no helping it.
“If you ask me, it seems like whoever made this was deliberately trying to mock humans.”
“No, so shut your mouth.”
Sion’s lips twitched as he spoke.
Then ‘Altair’ continued.
— Come, descendants! Everything I am awaits you at the end!
“Oh, oh…!”
The students held their mouths covered by their palms, entirely overwhelmed with shock.
Everything Altair was!
This was too thrilling to bear.
And Sion—
“That’s definitely Belusian.”
He ground his teeth, certain now of who was behind this.
Only that bastard could provoke him so carefully and thoroughly.
Altair’s phantom vanished with those words.
The students stood frozen, staring blankly at the space where it had been.
“W-was this Altair’s storage? The place where Altair secretly kept his inventions……?”
“I-I think I’ve heard about this too!”
The students fumbled over one another’s words, debating the true nature of this space.
Eira drifted naturally to Sion’s side and asked quietly.
“You already knew everything, didn’t you, teacher?”
“I’m not certain.”
“Understood, I’ll assume that’s the case then.”
“Do as you see fit.”
Sion nodded vaguely, his expression unreadable.
After all, if they chose to misunderstand, he could simply use that misunderstanding to his advantage.
‘This might actually work out well.’
Sion decided to seize the moment instead.
He stepped forward before the students and spoke.
“Well, you all heard that, didn’t you?”
“T-teacher, is it true?! Is this really……?”
“Indeed. This is the secret workshop of Altair, the Greatest of All Time’s Master of Magical Tools.”
Sion fabricated the backstory on the spot without a trace of hesitation.
“S-so then, teacher…… bringing us to such a precious place means……!”
“A master’s generosity.”
“T-teacher!”
Tult dropped to his knees before Sion with an expression bordering on religious reverence.
[Wow, this is really…….]
Akasha spoke in a tone of utter exasperation, but Sion pressed ahead boldly.
“But nothing in this world is free! If you wish to receive something, you must pay a price!”
“A p-price? What would that be?”
“Simple. Somewhere in this place, there exists a target that bears a resemblance to me.”
“A target!”
Sion met the wide-eyed gaze of his students and spoke.
“Capture it and bring it here.”
“We shall obey!”
“We shall obey!”
For once, the students cried out in perfect unison.
In other words, something like a Treasure Goblin was wandering about in some corner of this place, frantic and panicked.
‘If I can just catch that thing……!’
Whatever it was, they’d certainly receive an enormous reward!
Watching the students prepare with such resolute determination, Sion felt a contented smile cross his face.
‘That’s right—use them, and the work gets done.’
Why should he personally capture his biological brother’s doppelgänger?
Here he stood surrounded by eager subordinates who would do the heavy lifting for him.
Sion addressed them all.
“Now go.”
“Yes!”
“Yes!”
With eyes wide with excitement, the students immediately began rushing off to search for the Treasure Goblin hidden somewhere in this place.
And moments later, alone at last, Sion leisurely headed in the exact opposite direction from where the students had gone.
“Now then, time to get moving.”
[Human…….]
Akasha spoke in a resigned tone.
[Truly impressive…….]
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

* * *

The wall Sion approached bore no door.
Yet Sion advanced toward the sealed barrier without the slightest hesitation.
“I said it felt familiar—back then, that creature showed me a building blueprint, and it was structured exactly like this.”
[You believe this space was constructed using that blueprint from that day?]
“Yes. And I’m fairly certain I’m right about it.”
Sion felt along the wall, searching for something, and soon found it.
“Here it is.”
[Indeed.]
Where Sion’s hand touched, there was a small groove.
The groove was positioned so secretively that one couldn’t find it without knowing precisely where to look.
Click.
The moment Sion’s finger slid into the groove, the wall lurched forward with a deep, resonant boom.
[……It’s definite.]
“At this point, there’s no doubt left. This space, I mean.”
Sion spoke while gazing down the corridor that stretched before him.
“It was clearly built on the premise that I would come here.”
Belusian had shared that blueprint with only one person—his close friend Altair.
And there was only one meaning to that.
Belusian wanted Altair to find this place.
Though Sion couldn’t say exactly why, he was certain his reasoning was sound.
[But wasn’t Altair’s incurable disease something Belusian was already aware of?]
“Yes.”
Belusian naturally knew that Altair wouldn’t live long.
Yet if he still created a space like this, the reason had to be…….
“He knew about the Akashic Records too.”
[Surely not…….]
“Yes.”
Sion spoke with conviction.
“Belusian is calling me. So I have to go. Don’t I?”
[I concur.]
Akasha nodded in agreement.
Sion immediately set toward the corridor without hesitation.
‘I don’t know what purpose you prepared this for…….’
Sion recalled his old friend from memory and let out a dry laugh.
‘You’d better have a reward worthwhile enough to satisfy me, Belusian.’
Honestly, he was curious.
Just what had driven him to create a space like this.
If it was a structure built on the premise of Altair’s existence, there had to be a solid reason behind it.
But it was then.
Beep.
[……Human.]
Akasha spoke, her voice dropping slightly.
[Beyond that passage, I sense a wavelength similar to my own.]
“What?”
[I’d need to draw closer to discern details, but perhaps…….]
Akasha continued.
[What lies beyond might be something like me.]
“……!”
Sion’s eyes widened at those words.

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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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