How a Catastrophe-Level Magician Lives

After arriving at the destination.

“Well? Have you given it some thought? Heh heh heh heh.”

The one who spoke from behind after getting off the carriage was none other than that old magician.

Frey said:

“…What exactly is your reason for doing this much for us?”
“Hmm? Are you curious about that?”

It felt as if he was asking if Frey was really curious about the reason, even though he had offered full tuition, scholarships, and even top-grade magic books for each of them.

“Frey. That old man. He seems like a scammer.”

At the sight of Aina pulling his sleeve once and asking with her index finger, the old magician laughed “Ho ho ho” and spoke first instead of Frey:

“It’s a misunderstanding. I’m not a scammer. Right! This letter of recommendation should do. I’m glad I wrote it in advance.”
“……”
Did he prepare such a thing quickly again?

What the old man took out from his sleeve were two letter envelopes sealed with red seals.

He handed them over to Frey.

“Take them.”
“…What are these?”
“You’ll see when you look. My official seal is stamped there.”

On the seal in the middle of the letter envelope he saw, there was already a quite dry official seal of the Dean of Argen Academy.

“No way…”
“Yes. I’m the person who was the ‘former’ Dean of that Argen Academy.”
“……”

He had guessed and expected something like this, but as they say, the unexpected happens.

He didn’t know he was really the Dean of that place.
Although the modifier “former” was attached.

Usually, the seal on such letters is magically processed so strongly that it’s impossible to forge.

“I assure you. If you take that letter of recommendation, you’ll get a free pass without any other admission procedures. Ho ho ho ho ho ho!”

As if to say, “I’m a person of this caliber,” at this revelation of identity, Frey looked at him calmly and asked:

“Why is such an important person using a carriage like this in a place like this?”
It was a natural question of doubt.

However, the old man who had revealed himself as the former Dean of the Imperial Argen Academy simply smiled and answered briefly while holding his staff:

“When one gets old, and when it’s time to die, people naturally look back once again on the paths and traces of their past that they’ve been walking straight ahead on until now.”
“……”
“I can say for certain. I know best because it’s my body. I don’t know when it will be, but I will die soon, not long from now.”
“…!”

At those words like a bolt from the blue that would surprise anyone who knew him, even Frey couldn’t hide his widened eyes of surprise.

“…Dean, are you saying…?”
“No need to look at me like that. I’m not afraid of death. I’ve accomplished a lot, and I’ve achieved pretty much everything I’ve dreamed of since I was young. Just one thing… I was in the middle of a long journey, revisiting the path I’ve lived, with one last lingering attachment.”
“…”

The old man subtly asked first.
About what he called his last lingering attachment.
“Aren’t you curious about what it is?”
Honestly, he could have said he wasn’t that curious.
After all, it was someone else’s life, and he was just one of the many people passing by, ultimately a stranger to Frey.

But why?
Had there been some change of heart?

Frey wanted to ask.
Although he couldn’t guess at all what kind of answer would come back.

“…What exactly is it? What you, Dean, call your last lingering attachment in life.”
“Heh heh heh.”

The old man paused for a moment.

Looking alternately into the eyes of Aina, who was standing in front quietly with her mouth shut, and Frey beside her.

The next words he uttered were like a sigh, yet seemed to contain his only remaining wish and last lingering attachment in life:

“I want a magician of the new era who will change this world.”

The old man, no.
The Dean of Argen Academy and
One of the great magicians who had reached the extreme realm, and once again surpassed that wall.

One who had entered the transcendent realm,
surpassing the absolute realm.

At the age of 542, a demigod.
Ashurang spoke as if passing on to a much younger junior living in the new era before him:

“To succeed me, to bring another change to this world──.”

Beyond transcendence,
A magician of new ‘revolution’──.
“Unfortunately, it was difficult to see talent with such potential. Even in our Argen Academy. But…”

I met you.

It was a voice, yet not a voice.

At least to Frey himself, every other word he heard was like a strange sensation of a voice resonating directly in his head, in his soul, as if speaking.

The old man’s eyes were now tinged with an indescribable five-colored light.

As if looking through the essence of Frey’s very soul, seeing beyond the shell of the physical body…

“Heh heh heh, if this isn’t fate, what is it? From the moment we met. Maybe it was destined to be like this. The God of Magic intended for you and me to meet here by chance. There’s no other way to explain it. I felt this was a kind of fate from the moment I first saw you.”

Was that why?
Was that the reason?

He had been presenting various conditions as if being generous, trying to make it tempting.

“I promise. The day you truly awaken. You will have the opportunity to inherit everything I have built up.”
“…What on earth…? What do you mean by awaken…”
It was at that moment.

The old man’s body started to change hazily in an instant.

“…!!!”

Even Aina beside him was startled.

Seeing the sudden change in the old man, whose very presence seemed to be becoming hazy.

I’ve already taken care of that.
Actually, your opinion wasn’t that important to me. Didn’t I say? This was already our predetermined fate set by the God of Magic. I’m sorry. But you definitely won’t regret it. I’ll pass on all of me to your soul.
Light seeped in.
Into Frey’s chest.
And the next words were the end.
The last words he left to his young junior in his lifetime were:

I guess this was the end of the long journey that decorated the last of my past life. Heh heh heh heh heh heh! Now I can close my eyes and rest well.

As if truly happy, now even the last lingering attachment in life was resolved, he laughed it off lightly. Just becoming beautiful five-colored magical light, dispersing and scattering gently into the sky in the air, oxidizing and disappearing.

Frey and Aina, left behind, could hardly open their mouths.

Plop.
They had met a fateful encounter.

A meeting of inexplicable fate that might be the first and last.
Along with two books with jeweled ornate covers that looked like top-grade magic books the old man had left behind, fallen on the ground.

“……”
“……”

Clop clop, clop clop.

It was a carriage again.
To the point of being sick and tired of it now.

However, inside such a carriage, Frey and Aina hadn’t been able to say anything to each other until they got here.

Because they had experienced such a mysterious encounter and meeting.

It was an atmosphere where it was difficult for either of them to speak up first.

Had the old man died?
Or was he really a living person after all?

Was it just his soul remaining like the last lingering attachment of life, barely holding onto his dying body with unimaginable, profound power?

Although such questions came up repeatedly in their minds in a disorderly manner,

Frey and Aina couldn’t say anything to each other in the carriage for a while.

It was difficult to bring it up first because there were still too many points that were hard to understand to easily talk about that incident.

Like a passing dream, a momentary daydream.

The two people who had experienced an inexplicable mystery and encounter were finally reaching the end of this long journey.

Because the carriage they were riding in was gradually starting to show the territory of House Phoenix in the distance where it was heading.

The knight, Hans, is a high-ranking knight in charge of the gatekeeper of House Phoenix.

A high-ranking knight who has reached a certain level, equipped with excellent skills that can handle even a magician of some level in an instant.

Being in charge of a family’s gatekeeper was a job that required that level of skill.

Therefore, Knight Hans had always proudly and confidently guarded this gate located at some distance from the mansion, which was also the main house of House Phoenix.

As it was a job done in shifts of two people, there was another gatekeeper with a similar level of skill sitting next to him.

Just like any other ordinary day, as he was living his peaceful daily life as a gatekeeper, someone suddenly approached him.

“Who…”

Are you?

He was about to continue saying that.

However,

The other fellow gatekeeper beside him stopped him hurriedly, opening his eyes wide:

“Hey! Hans! You stupid idiot! Don’t you even recognize the young master of the place you’re guarding! It’s Young Master ‘Frey’, the fourth son of our family!”

“Gasp…!”
That’s right.

Their youngest young master, who had left to study abroad in a foreign country half a year ago, had returned.
The one whose face was rarely seen even when he was in the family…!

However, the truly shocking problem that caught his eye was,

‘Y-Young Master! Young Master Frey has brought a woman!’

He had brought along a beautiful young girl who seemed to be in an unusual relationship!

“Your Excellency!! Welcome back! Youngest Young Master! I’ll open the gate right away!”
“…Mm, it’s been a while. You’ve worked hard.”

Frey felt a strange awkwardness but still walked through the main gate opened on both sides by the two gatekeepers, bringing along Aina who was standing quietly beside him.

After recognizing Frey’s identity, there were no questions about who Aina beside him was.

Who would dare block the way of House Phoenix’s youngest young master?

Especially while going through troublesome procedures asking this and that in detail.

At least Gatekeeper Hans was not such a stupid and foolish person.

After half a year, the family’s youngest young master has returned!

And with a beautiful woman of his age at that!

That news became a rapidly spreading rumor throughout the family on the same day through the next shift change of the two gatekeepers.

And the one who was most surprised, opening her eyes wide and welcoming the returned Frey was.

None other than the second wife of House Phoenix.

Frey’s mother.

Lady Rena.

“S-Son?”
“It’s been a while, Mother. Have you been well?”
“……”
Bow.
At that time, it was just an added story that Aina was there beside Frey, politely and maturely greeting as if she were a bride he had brought.

And for Lady Rena, who was watching with her mouth slightly open in shock, it was also the moment when her first impression of her, Aina, was determined.