The Youngest Hides a Lot - Chapter 155

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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 155
* * *
Delcan Ruins, Basement.
“Damn it!”
The Mage King exhaled roughly, his mana exploding outward.
The fortress, tangled like a complex anthill, shuddered with a sharp crack.
“Please, calm yourself. If this collapses….”
“This isn’t all of it?”
A vast inner chamber deep within the underground ruins.
Once I cleared away the dark matter that had filled this space, a magic circle drawn in blood across the floor, walls, and ceiling was revealed.
When the Mage King first saw this, he believed his long-cherished dream had finally come true.
By resurrecting the Dark Mage and seizing his power, he could ignite war across this land once more.
And thus, he would slay all who opposed him, ultimately reigning as the absolute ruler of this world.
“But it’s incomplete!”
Yet it was all for naught.
The magic circle was missing something.
No matter how much power he poured into it, there was a fatal flaw that could not be filled.
“I shall transfer this entire magic circle to the Royal Palace. By mobilizing the knowledge of all Senior Mages and elders, I will absolutely complete the final formula…. Gack!”
The Mage King laughed bitterly, his hand tightening around the Senior Mage’s throat.
“No, that’s not it!”
His eyes flickered with madness.
“There’s a faster way, isn’t there?”
“Gasp, wh, what!”
The sweet fruit dangling before his eyes.
Upon realizing it was nothing but a mirage, reason fled, and unbearable rage and impatience surged through him.
But he knew the fastest way to resolve this.
“I was going to wait for the stigma to grow, but…. I can’t wait any longer.”
I must capture Seventh and force her to complete this magic circle somehow.
Just one.
Just one formula is all I need!
Having made his decision, the Mage King licked his lips anxiously.
“I must go to Babylon right now….”
“What? You, this is far too dangerous! If the Emperor of Babylon discovers this…. It will create serious problems with our alliance. Moreover, shouldn’t moving the magic circle here take priority? The quantity is so vast that the transfer alone will require more time….”
Smack. The Senior Mage’s cheek snapped to the side.
The Mage King’s eyes widened gently.
“Does it sadden me that you spout such foolish nonsense? Do you think I, of all people, would be easily discovered by those insects?”
His eyes, devoid of reason, gleamed with madness.
“….”
“Summon Second. She’s perfect for managing records of this sort. Leave it to her and follow me with the rest.”
“…Yes, understood….”
The Senior Mage withdrew, saying he would send a messenger to the Royal Palace.
Left alone, the Mage King flexed his fingers thoughtfully.
‘If I had fully inscribed the mark on Seventh, I wouldn’t be dealing with this nonsense.’
The power dwelling within that child’s body.
It had always been the problem.
Of course, I’d succeeded in seizing it, and I’d grown complacent, knowing that with time it would fall completely into my hands.
‘How audacious, fleeing like that.’
The Kingdom’s problem with rogue mages was nothing new. But since most were insignificant insects whose very existence I was unaware of, the Mage King paid them little mind.
The mark was a symbol of absolute obedience to the Mage King.
However, using that mark to strip away a mage’s sense of self or control them was an entirely different matter. It required an enormous amount of magical power.
‘Even if I left them alone, the Tracking Mages have always captured them well enough.’
Or they’d exhaust themselves fleeing and perish on their own.
But among my ‘children,’ Seventh was the first to flee the Kingdom.
With the others, I would have endured the magical loss and used the mark to recapture them… but not with Seventh.
Because of the power that child possessed.
‘Waiting for the mark to grow was never the plan.’
While I ground my teeth and sank into thought, the Senior Mage who had vanished suddenly reappeared.
His expression seemed oddly troubled.
“What is it?”
“It’s… from Second at the Royal Palace…”
The Mage King’s head tilted sharply.
“There’s no response.”
“…No response?”
“It appears the Royal Palace has been abandoned…”
“…”
“Perhaps… did you send them on another mission?”
A flash of unusual light crossed the Mage King’s eyes.
* * *
“Your mark is growing, isn’t it?”
Second spoke as though he already knew everything.
“Father himself delved into ancient magic and inscribed a mark upon you—one entirely different from ours.”
The marks on mages are inscribed by the elders of the Royal Palace or Senior Mages.
Inscribing a mark wasn’t difficult, and besides, the Mage King despised wasting his own magical power carelessly.
“But when Father inscribed your mark… it was said to be difficult, as though some tremendous force was interfering.”
“…”
“So in the end, the best we could manage was a form that slowly grows and erodes.”
I naturally thought of Wizeria.
Of course, the Mage King’s power was far too formidable to completely block the mark itself.
After all, he was the strongest mage in the Kingdom.
“Then, I’ll transfer it.”
Second hesitated, pointing her finger at the blank parchment.
The inscriptions carved into her collarbone flowed like ripples down her arm and etched themselves onto the paper.
She handed me the parchment.
“Here, you….”
“Oh, thanks!”
I snatched it up quickly.
“Got it. But hurry back! If the Mage King finds out, what then!”
I’d assumed she came here on the Mage King’s orders….
But if this was Second’s independent action, that changed everything.
‘The Mage King can’t know this material fell into my hands.’
I hurriedly committed the contents to memory. There was quite a lot.
“…You know I understand Father’s every move better than anyone. He’s so absorbed in the ruins right now that he won’t call for me for weeks. Besides…. You’ll keep your end of the deal, right?”
“Hmph!”
I let out a light scoff.
The reason Second brought me this document.
It wasn’t anything else.
“When you complete the magic circle to break the stigma, remove mine as well.”
“What?”
“I…. don’t want to die like that. Like Fourth, without even knowing why I had to die.”
A woman who appeared to be barely twenty.
The mage who always stood expressionless to the right of the throne.
That was all my perception of Second had ever been—like the air of the Royal Palace, like a pillar.
“Wow, you’re really pathetic. You’ve been safe inside the Royal Palace all this time, and now suddenly you’re afraid of the Mage King and asking me to free you from the stigma?”
Despite my sharp words, she only bit her lip tightly.
“I’m sorry, but that’s my way of surviving. Not everyone can live making only righteous choices…. And I don’t have special power like you do….”
“Playing the victim….”
Poooooo—
An elephant’s trunk, swollen with anger, tapped Second’s cheeks repeatedly.
“Stop it!”
Wow, I realized that getting angry instantly improved my lung capacity!
“You’re just selfish!”
Perhaps her following the Mage King wasn’t out of loyalty, but parasitism.
The type who entrusts her life to the strong and submits to them.
‘Now you’re trying to parasitize me, is that it?’
How infuriating!
But it was true that the material Second brought was quite valuable.
‘Anyway, I need to send her back quickly.’
My eyes moved rapidly across the document.
The content of the ancient text was simple.
The circle for inscribing the stigma and the circle for breaking it.
The text was twisted into cipher, but it posed no problem when my eyes glowed red.
‘The formation of Destruction is…. Its structure is similar to the formation that inscribes the Stigma.’
Creating the form of the World Tree and then erasing it.
‘But that last remaining formula differs from the Stigma’s formation?’
And instead of information about that final formula, the document contained a string of tiny nouns.
What is this? It looks like names….
‘Bamiless?’
I found one familiar word among them. Then this is,
‘Not a name but….’
A place name?
Is the last remaining formula located in one of these place names written here?
“But this really….”
However, I soon exploded in frustration.
“The letters are way too small! What is this!”
“Sorry…. I compressed it as much as possible to steal it.”
Ugh, my eyes are about to pop out.
Is there a magnifying glass anywhere?
Unfortunately, there wasn’t.
Then, a thought struck me.
‘Come to think of it, there’s an office in this library with all sorts of odds and ends, probably…?’
“Alright, let’s go.”
“Huh?”
“You go back for now!”
“…What about the promise?”
“Ugh, are you a leech! Go!”
At my shout, Second’s body trembled.
“You’ve gotten a bit fierce somehow….”
In any case, I led Second out of the Ancient Manuscript Archive.
Past closing time, the Lobby was empty. Liam was on a date with the Biology Professor today.
As I closed the Archive door, I glanced down at the document in my hand.
‘To erase something, you need a power stronger than it….’
Suddenly, such a thought occurred to me.
The reason Wizeria wouldn’t teach me the magic formation to remove the Stigma.
‘Perhaps she thought my body still couldn’t handle that overwhelming force.’
I looked down at my small hands.
I had grown well from eating properly in the Northern Region and playing around in the Training Ground.
Of course, the Stigma grew along with me, but as it grew, I became determined to break free from this bondage.
‘Wizeria, you….’
What exactly are you trying to make me do?
That was when it happened.
“Ugh.”
Second suddenly collapsed to the floor, clutching her throat.
“What? Why are you suddenly—”
At the same moment, a crackling noise erupted as a communication circuit opened.
‘Kalid?’
Weren’t we supposed to avoid using communication circuits at the Academy?
[ Rubian! Where are you? The Mage King… ]
His breathing sounded labored, as though he were running. Something was interfering, cutting off his words.
‘Hello?’
[ … … ! ]
What was that?
To make matters worse, Second’s breathing grew increasingly ragged on the floor. In that instant, an inexplicable sense of wrongness washed over me.
“…Second, you… Don’t tell me.”
“Why… is it so… suffocating? My mana… is it running out…?”
She muttered while pulling down her collar.
Watching her, I found myself entranced, mechanically repeating the last word Kalid had mumbled.
“Um, the Mage King…?”
My voice grew slightly hoarse.
“…The Mage King, where are you right now?”
She lifted her head sharply, as if she’d been waiting for this question.
“Here.”
“…What?”
“On this Continent.”
It felt as though someone had struck the back of my head with a sledgehammer.
The Mage King was a man who hadn’t personally intervened even during the human-demon war. So naturally, I’d assumed he’d be holed up in the Royal Palace this time as well…
“Delcan… Ruins. Ugh.”
She scratched obsessively at the reddened mark on her skin.
That was when it happened. Second’s mark blazed with a deep crimson light.
A completely different aura flowed through that mark from what I’d felt before.
That aura was…
“A lie…”
I instinctively stepped backward.
My reflexes kicked in—I moved my mana to erase the text on the document I was holding.
I twisted my body and was about to bolt when—
“Ugh!”
My arm was seized with brutal force.
Blue veins bulged across Second’s hand, writhing like living creatures.
A grip powerful enough to explode.
Murky eyes flickering with an eerie light.
“It… hurts…”
“Found it.”
In that instant, the world seemed to freeze.

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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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