Sage 26

Since I had been hiding in the corner of the auction house wearing the invisibility cloak, I needed to do a bit of groundwork so that my sudden appearance wouldn’t be suspicious.

Unlike magic tools, the use of magic can be detected by its mana movement, so it was quite troublesome to subdue one of the auction participants without using magic.

When one of the auction participants got up from the main hall where the auction was taking place, I followed him, still wearing the invisibility cloak. Like most people who come to places like this, he had two guards with him, but that wasn’t a problem for me.

As someone who always has the convenient function of magic, I rarely have to use my physical abilities, but I’m someone who’s been through enough battles to know how to use my body to ambush or knock someone out. It would be a problem if I couldn’t even do this much after living for 400 years.

After quickly subduing the two guards, I struck the masked man hard on the back of his neck and knocked him unconscious before he could realize what was happening.

All three of them must have been flustered to be attacked by an invisible opponent. Hitting unsuspecting fools from behind was my specialty.

I took the mask and clothes from the unconscious man, changed into them, and covered the three of them with the invisibility cloak so they wouldn’t be noticed.

As for the eyes, as long as they didn’t look directly into my eyes, they wouldn’t notice that they were black, but the hair was a problem.

The mistake was that I hadn’t brought a disguise magic tool because I hadn’t planned on participating in the auction.

I thought for a moment and decided to change my hair color with magic, even if it meant being caught. The auction would be over soon, so even if I was suspected, I could just quickly get in and out. If that didn’t work, I could just use this as an excuse to kill Archbold myself.

Naturally, suspicious gazes followed me as I returned alone after entering as a group of three. Seeing that the staff, who hadn’t been visible before, were cautiously walking around the venue, it seemed that my use of magic had been quickly discovered. This is why mages are destined not to be able to do things like assassinations. It was too upright of a profession.

Ignoring the staff who were looking at me suspiciously as much as possible, I watched Archbold’s reaction. He must be anxious since I had raised the price by 10 million gallons.

“82 million gallons.”

A silent threat was exchanged, telling me not to interfere in this auction. However, even though I understood the signal, I completely ignored it. What’s 2 million gallons? If you’re going to bid, bid properly.

“83 million gallons.”

“85 million.”

“87 million.”

As expected, Irkus, who had quickly noticed my presence, was staring at me. He seemed dissatisfied that I had come all the way here and was raising the auction price, even though I was supposed to just make a magic tool and leave. He must be feeling like a high school student whose mother followed him on a school trip.

Whether or not Irkus was signaling me not to raise the price too much, I continued to raise the price to further provoke Archbold, who was shaking his huge body in anger.

“90 million gallons.”

Archbold, who had fallen for my provocation without realizing it, eventually called out a price that was 20 million gallons higher than the initial auction price.

I wanted to raise it to 100 million gallons, but judging from the circumstances, Archbold probably didn’t have that much money for the auction. I could tell from the way he was adding a measly 2 million gallons instead of 10 million.

“90 million gallons. Any higher bids?”

The auctioneer, looking bewildered, looked at me and Archbold alternately and then declared the item sold. Irkus was sold to Archbold as planned.

After Irkus was successfully bid on, a man who appeared to be an auction house staff member approached me. Bowing politely, he asked me if I could accompany him for a moment.

He was obviously asking me to verify my identity. The two guards hadn’t returned yet, and unlike the original owner of the seat, who had just been watching the auction, I had actively participated in the bidding by raising the price, so it was inevitable that I would stand out.

I slowly rose from my seat without any resistance or refusal.

I knew that someone would soon discover the three unconscious people covered in invisibility cloaks. There was no reason to refuse if I could voluntarily enter the deeper parts of the auction house before that.

***

The middle-aged man, who had been quite polite just a moment ago, pulled a sword on me as soon as we were out of sight.

I glanced down at the dagger pointed at my neck. Perhaps because it was meant for intimidation, the blade was duller than I expected.

“Who are you?”

Magic is always too easily detected.

I thought I could at least finish watching the auction. When I enter the imperial palace, I shouldn’t rely on magic too much and bring some magic tools with me. If I strike people with lightning and knock them down just because I’m annoyed, like I did in the past, it will be disadvantageous for Irkus.

“Don’t you know it’s common courtesy to answer when asked who you are?”

“What?”

“You probably don’t. I am… the Great Sage.”

But this isn’t the imperial palace, so it’s okay to knock a few people down, right?

I quickly came to a conclusion and swung my arm to hit the man on the head, whether or not my neck was stabbed by the dagger.

Because I hadn’t expected this kind of fight, I wasn’t using the sword-defense spell, so blood gushed from my neck, but I didn’t care. I’m no longer fazed by this level of pain.

The man was quite tough. Even the guards who came with me for protection had fainted after one hit, but even when attacked at a vital point, he only staggered and didn’t lose consciousness.

That worked out well for me. I, in turn, snatched the dagger from the man’s hand. He had such a strong grip that it took quite a bit of effort to pry his hand open, even after twisting his wrist backwards.

“Is the owner here?”

“…..”

“If you don’t want to die, take me to the auction house owner… no, the highest ranking manager.”

A faint resistance continued for a little longer, but when I really pointed the dagger at him, the man quieted down. He was just an employee, so he probably didn’t want to die here.

When I pushed the man’s back, he finally started walking.

“…I don’t know what your purpose is, but it’s not a good idea to think you can leave here alive.”

“My, that’s a nice sentiment.”

The man didn’t seem to notice that the wound on my neck, which he had just stabbed, had already healed. Judging by the way he was talking like this even after I revealed that I was the Great Sage, it seemed he didn’t know exactly who I was.

I leaned closer to the naive man, intending to tease him a bit. Then I stabbed my own neck again with the dagger I was pointing at him.

“What now? I can’t die even if I don’t plan on leaving here alive.”

His pale face was a bit funny. In a way, an immortal human can be a subject of terror. It’s like telling them that there’s no way to subdue me, no matter how much they attack.

I pointed the blood-soaked dagger at the back of the man’s neck again.

“But you’ll die, right?”

It’s really simple to stimulate a person’s fear. Humans are bound to feel fear when their lives are threatened. There were few humans who could remain calm in the face of death.

I followed the man, who had quickened his pace, deeper into the auction house.

***

The transfer of auctioned items took place after the auction was over.

Despite Yoo-an’s intrusion, the auction wasn’t disrupted and ended normally, which made Irkus feel uneasy. Yoo-an’s hair color, which he had changed with magic instead of a magic tool, was quickly spotted by Irkus, who was a mage before he was a magic swordsman.

The reason why Irkus Robain volunteered for this request was because of the reward offered by the client.

The client had promised to give Irkus not only money but also information he knew. He had promised to reveal the location of a witch powerful enough to break a magic contract.

During his five years as a mercenary, Irkus had searched for a witch.

But witches were much rarer than mages, and they rarely lived among humans, so it was difficult to meet them. Even if he was lucky enough to meet one or two wandering witches, most of them were too young, so they were often less skilled than mages.

Irkus had devised ways to break the contract he had made with Yoo-an without Yoo-an’s knowledge, but there was no way that Irkus, a mere seventeen-year-old in terms of magic, could break the magic contract of Yoo-an, the Great Sage who was over 400 years old.

So Irkus needed a witch to help him break his contract. A powerful, tight-lipped witch, preferably one who had lived a long time, although not as long as Yoo-an, but longer than an average human.

Tristan, the leader of the Red Hawk mercenary group, was reluctant to let Irkus take on this request. It wasn’t because he doubted Irkus’s skill, but because the reward was objectively poor compared to the content of the request.

However, Irkus insisted on taking this request himself. Tristan grumbled that not all witches would willingly help or cooperate, even if Irkus found out their locations, but Irkus didn’t care.

Until he was twelve years old, Irkus’s biggest wish was ‘survival’. He could do anything as long as he could survive.

It wasn’t difficult to live quietly without being noticed by the people of the imperial palace who treated him like dirt. It was bearable to deal with half-siblings who were eager to stab him in the back with a smiling face.

If he could gain stronger power and a secure position, everything could change. Even if he had never dreamed of great revenge, he needed the power to have an excuse to chase away the flies that buzzed annoyingly in front of him.

Until five years ago, the most important thing to Irkus Robain was himself. Because there was no one but Irkus himself for Irkus.

But not anymore.

Irkus’s life goal was no longer ‘survival’. The thought that he had to gain power to survive had long since disappeared.

If he could spend the rest of his life with Yoo-an, it wouldn’t be bad even if he lived as a battle slave at the very bottom, not an emperor. But Yoo-an would not stand idly by and watch Irkus fall into such a miserable state. Although he would click his tongue and say, “I knew you would be like this,” he couldn’t turn a blind eye to the plight of his disciple he had raised himself.

However, if he really became the emperor of the Empire, Irkus had to kill Yoo-an according to the contract.

Since they had made a magic contract, if he didn’t fulfill the contract without breaking it, he would have to receive a penalty whose contents he didn’t even know. If he had known the contents of the penalty for breach of contract, Irkus wouldn’t have tried so hard to make the contract with Yoo-an disappear.

He resented his five-years-ago self who couldn’t stop Yoo-an, who had been eager to make a magic contract. Yoo-an, who kept talking about dying, was even more resentful.

Yoo-an was an irreplaceable being to Irkus. Irkus’s world, which had been a narrow space with only himself, slowly expanded, centered around Yoo-an.

Irkus’s life wasn’t infinite like Yoo-an’s. But what did that matter? Irkus was Yoo-an’s first disciple, a descendant of the human Yoo-an admired, and the sole protagonist of the world.

It would be a sufficiently successful life to be imprinted on Yoo-an’s eternity as a unique being and then die. If only he could remain as a more special being than Yoo-an’s often-mentioned ancestor, Yekarina…

That would be enough.

Irkus Robain, like the other descendants of Yekarina, had no intention of killing Han Yoo-an.

Absolutely not.