The Knight Who Devours Magic - Chapter 37

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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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Episode 37. Spirit Magic
[Subject 13, seeing through the Veil?]
“Yes. Only then does all of this make sense.”
The robed man lowered his head, studying the Communication Crystal.
The bandages wrapped thickly around his hands were already dyed a vivid crimson, as though blood might drip at any moment, yet his face remained expressionless.
[What was Subject 13’s ability again?]
“Metal Manipulation, sir.”
[An ability mutation… unlikely. Something must have changed when he was ‘offered.’ Do we have more detailed information?]
“Well, we collected reports that the chain Bishop Cremmel implanted ordinarily remains invisible, but suddenly protrudes from armor or similar objects.”
[Hmm. So Metal Manipulation has evolved to include shape-shifting and compression. But that’s not the answer I’m looking for.]
“We also found records indicating the chain was forged from Devil Metal. Wouldn’t that mean it could react distinctly to Magi?”
[Devil Metal, he calls it—but it’s merely a chain enhanced with the basic processes used in crafting magical artifacts. He’s claiming that simply mastering such a thing grants him the ability to pierce my Veil?]
A calm rebuttal fell from his lips.
But the man’s response was dramatic.
“T-that’s not what I meant at all! Absolutely not! I-I beg your forgiveness!!”
Thud. Thud.
The man, who had remained impassive until now, hurriedly prostrated himself beneath the table, slamming his forehead against the floor.
Thud. Thud.
It was only when blood began flowing copiously from his skull that a low murmur finally drifted from the Communication Crystal above the table.
[Is he definitely capable of seeing through the Veil?]
Only then did the man, who had continued striking his head, lift it once more.
“Not certain, sir, but assuming so accounts for all circumstances.”
[…I see. Cremmel must have done something when he offered that one. No Outer God would lack interest in ‘that bloodline,’ yet rather than accept him as a sacrifice, he granted him power? A rare case indeed. What manner of Outer God it might be, there’s no way to know now….]
An Outer God refusing a sacrifice and instead granting power?
It was a statement that shattered a mage’s understanding of the world, yet the man did not contradict the voice from the crystal again.
Rather.
[Perhaps I should not have abandoned Cremmel.]
To that self-reproaching murmur, the man rebutted passionately.
“No, sir! Had you intervened directly, you would have drawn the attention of the Dragonic Sword Duke. It was a wise decision to preserve the organization.”
[Yes, indeed. That old fool is the problem. A mere Body Strengthening Art practitioner grates on my nerves far too much….]
“Is it not because of the Dragonic Sword itself? No matter how formidable a Seven-Star may be, without the Dragonic Sword….”
[Enough.]
“I-I apologize.”
[Retrieving Subject 13 comes first now.]
“Are you pressing forward with the plan?”
[Yes. But there’s no need to be reckless about it. Sever all connections to Konnel and exercise restraint for a time. Once this commotion has subsided, I’ll commit real force to secure Subject 13.]
“…By ‘real force,’ do you mean?”
[I’ll send an Elder. We’ll raze that backwater Drasen territory to the ground if need be and take him.]
The man swallowed hard at those words.
“The Elders won’t listen to my word. If they grow wrathful….”
[You needn’t tell them.]
“Pardon? Ah, then you’ll contact them directly….”
The moment the robed man’s expression softened with relief,
the shadow within the crystal bared its teeth in a smile.
[After all, the dead have no words to relay.]
“What!?”
That outburst of shock was the man’s final utterance.
Splurt.
Without warning, his head exploded, and the headless corpse could offer no further sound.
[You too were connected to Konnel, were you not.]
Over the headless body, those calm words echoed,
then crackled and hissed.
Boom!
The Communication Crystal detonated with a thunderous sound.
In the darkness that followed, with the light of the crystal extinguished, only the thick stench of blood and endless silence remained.
* * *
“Muno, or rather—Muno. Shall we have a word?”
The unexpected words came in the midst of an impassioned discourse on how to hunt down the Demon Cult.
Muno could only look bewildered.
“Yes? What is it, suddenly?”
At his question, Rasmia smiled softly.
“I understand your courage and spirit of sacrifice well enough. But the decision rests with the General regardless. Since there’s nothing more we can do here, I’m simply suggesting we step aside for a moment and let Tinel and my brother handle this chaos. You must be exhausted too.”
Something in Rasmia’s manner—the way she smiled with her eyes as well—struck him as oddly deliberate.
‘Exhausted? That’s not the problem. I need to figure out how to deal with those creatures first.’
But Tinel sighed and gestured in agreement.
“She’s right. The boy’s had a rough time of it, and no sooner does he reach Konnel than he’s caught up in a crisis. He ought to rest. Rasmia, I’m counting on you.”
“Of course. Then I’ll—”
Well, he supposed they had a point.
Only after hearing Tinel’s words did Muno feel the exhaustion suddenly crash over him.
Now that he thought about it, he’d been running forward blind the entire time.
So he followed Rasmia’s lead to a place where he could rest.
But the moment they stepped outside the main hall, her entire demeanor shifted.
“Do you see this?”
Those were Rasmia’s first words once they were alone.
She thrust her hand forward, twisting a brilliant spiral of white wind directly into his view.
“Yes, well—if you’re showing it to me so clearly, then naturally—”
He barely finished his lukewarm response before Rasmia’s eyes lit up and she seized his hand.
“Just as I thought!”
Just as he thought what?
The unnaturally bright gleam in her eyes felt overwhelming.
“You have a talent for Spirit Magic! This is truly unusual!! Oh my, oh my! How extraordinary!”
“I—what?”
The unexpected words left Muno scrambling for composure.
“How could wind be visible to your eyes? Normally it’s invisible! But when I wielded Spirit Magic, you seemed to sense the Mana too, didn’t you?”
Mana.
The force of nature itself—or what was called the fundamental essence of the elements that composed the world.
A concept opposed to Magi, the demonic power that distorts the order of all things.
That much he’d learned from hearsay.
“What are you saying all of a sudden?”
As he floundered at this sudden turn, Rasmia pressed on with evident excitement.
“When I called forth the wind to pressure Moeno, your expression changed. Didn’t you feel something from my wind?”
“Ah, well… a warmth and gentleness, perhaps—”
“That’s Mana! I was right! How rare an occurrence this is—!”
Rasmia continued to grip his hand, bouncing on her feet, and her joy seemed utterly genuine.
‘Spirit Magic, out of nowhere…’
How could he possibly have a talent for the opposite force, when he devoured and could even harness Magi itself?
‘It’s probably because I can sense Magi that I’m more receptive to what opposes it.’
But even if he truly did possess such talent, why was Rasmia so delighted by it?
He tilted his head in confusion.
“A Body Strengthening practitioner with a gift for Spirit Magic is genuinely rare, and even when it occurs, the talent usually fades during evolution. Evolution reshapes the body according to a Body Strengthening practitioner’s sacred wish, so talents that don’t align with that transformation inevitably vanish…”
After hearing this rapid-fire cascade of explanations, he sensed something was going badly wrong.
“I think perhaps I might be a somewhat different case than you’re imagining—”
“You can learn Spirit Magic! And if I can discover and spread knowledge of a new Spirit Mage, my final merit will be complete, and I can enter the Tower again!”
Rasmia was already spiraling, her eyes blazing.
She was looking at him, yet somehow gazing past him toward something beyond.
‘The Tower? Oh, the Tower of Spirits, presumably?’
He’d heard of it before.
Beyond the Iron Kingdom, past the Deus Mado Empire to the south, past the lands of the black peoples still further south—at the world’s end.
The holy sanctuary and center of Spirit Mages, said to exist atop the highest mountain where it met a boundless sea.
Particularly, the Iron Kingdom was so distant from there that Spirit Mages were scarce, or so he’d heard.
“So if I learn Spirit Magic…”
“My ticket to entering the Tower becomes complete. I’ve already fulfilled all my other merits!”
A middle-aged woman gazing at him with eyes that sparkled like a girl’s—it was deeply uncomfortable.
Especially knowing he was about to shatter her hope.
“Um, look—could you let go of my hand for a moment?”
“Oh dear. Look at me. Ha ha ha. My apologies. I was just so thrilled—”
She stepped back with a silly grin, and something painfully innocent showed through her features—ill-suited to her age.
In another sense, desperate longing.
Perhaps that’s why she’d suddenly called him out here in the first place.

Still, it seemed kinder to both of them to nip such hopes in the bud before they grew.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t think I possess that kind of talent.”
Of course.
“What? That can’t be right. You said you can see the colors of wind and sense Mana?”
Rasmia wouldn’t accept it.
“Well, I think it’s because I’m extremely sensitive to Magi, so I ended up sensing the opposite energy as well. Combined with the effects of this Artifact, that is.”
Clank.
He pulled out the Iron Chain to emphasize his point.
“What? Isn’t that the same thing?”
She wasn’t following his logic.
“What?”
“Originally, people sensitive to Mana are also sensitive to Magi. And vice versa.”
“……What?”
“No matter how much you attribute it to the Artifact’s effects, if you can sense Magi well enough to penetrate the deceptions of Spirit Mages or priests, then you must be equally sensitive to Mana.”
“……Huh?”
But the truth was that sensing Magi wasn’t the Artifact’s doing—it was purely my own ability.
If that were the case……?
“Why don’t you at least learn the basics? You’ve heard of Spirit Knights and Holy Knights, haven’t you? Such rare, special breeds of superhuman—you could make a name for yourself in the world! Or even if you don’t care about becoming famous, there’s no harm in learning Spirit Magic. Do you know how precious Spirit Mages are in this country? If you can just handle earth elements well, you’ll never go hungry wherever you go…….”
“Wait, hold on!”
Rasmia’s words came pouring out without pause, leaving his head spinning.
Yet amid it all, one thing caught his interest unmistakably.
“So if you sense Magi well, you also sense Mana well?”
“Yes!”
Her firm reply shook Muno to his core.
If he could master another ability as a Holy Knight or Spirit Knight, he would come that much closer to the life he dreamed of.
But there was one thing that nagged at him.
“But then—have there been people who learned both magic and Spirit Magic at the same time?”
He posed the question, his heart racing, veiling his own situation—forced to carry Mana within his body whether he liked it or not.
“What……? Then they’d die, wouldn’t they?”
The answer came crashing down, shattering every last hope.

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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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