TYND 43

Rothy was still young, so it made sense for him to accept the marriage and the title of archduchess for now. But once he became an adult, he might grow to resent being bound to a man fourteen years older. Rothy might even blame him, asking if this was the only way to protect him from PLEIN.

Unfortunately for him, Theon had no intention of letting him go. Everyone—the emperor, PLEIN, his own subordinates—they were all mistaken. They believed this marriage was nothing more than a guardianship contract that once Rothy became an adult, it’d be annulled, that he’d set Rothy free. 

If he genuinely meant to set him free, why had he gone out of his way to make the Northerners adore him? Theon had intentionally left that misunderstanding uncorrected. 

If the man who made a sixteen-year-old boy his spouse also made his possessiveness obvious, his first and greatest enemy would be the morally rigid emperor himself. 

“Do you, ahn…  like me that much?”

“……”

“Hnngh, you… I like you too, Theon. I love you…”

The soft snow-white hair that cascaded like waves, the softness of his skin as he pressed closer, and those emerald green eyes that was full of love.

It was a glimpse of the future, shown to him by Seará. No matter how much he prayed, he never dreamt of it again. But that one vision had been enough for Theon to mark Rothy as ‘mine’. Unlike most Northerners, Theon had never been the possessive type. He’d never felt the need to claim or monopolise anything. 

Until now. 

How long would it take for Rothy to grow into the young man from his vision? Rothy’s growth was slow—beyond the normal, but now that the war was over and being a transcendent being, he’d all the time in the world. All he needed to do was to raise Rothy well.

But there was one thing even Theon hadn’t foreseen. 

“Did you see that? Our archduchess is just… just… just so adorable.”

“I know. He’s so delicate and precious.”

“So lovely.” 

“He was running around and tripped.”

“And then he went ‘Hnnngh’ when he was upset.”

“Ah, he’s really adorable…”

That day’s event cemented the Northerners’ perception of Rothy as ‘the young archduchess who needs to be protected at all costs’. In the future, Theon would find himself the subject of countless piercing glares just for wrapping an arm around Rothy’s waist. 

But that was something Theon didn’t know yet. 

***

Any time the highest quality magic stone’s discovered within the empire, it must be sent to the imperial capital first. With the exception of those from the Great Northern Mine, all magic stones must first pass through the hands of the Imperial Mage Tower’s tower master. 

The tower master would keep what was needed for the palace and send the rest back. Since becoming the tower master, I’d seen countless magic stones. I’d held in my hands hundreds of stones of far greater quality than even the famed magic stones from the Great Northern Mine. 

But I’d never been particularly greedy for them so unless they were absolutely necessary, I would return them to their source. 

But now. 

This magic stone before me, discovered in an unnamed cave, held more magical power than all the magic stones I’d ever seen combined. 

Its quantity was immeasurable. Not even with every magitools at my disposal. I was unable to calculate it. 

I understood then. It wasn’t that I lacked a desire for magic stones. It was simply because all the ones that came before this hadn’t been able to satisfy me. 

Last night, and again, this morning, I prayed to Seará, begging her not to forsake humanity. Find such a magic stone when the war tilts heavily towards our defeat… isn’t this a clear sign that Seará was still watching over us? 

Since this accidentally discovered stone would become an ordinary rock within an hour, I stored it in my magic container—one that prevented magical power loss after extraction. 

I named the magic stone ‘Rothy’, after Rothesys, the sage who named this world Araxys. As I left the cave with ‘Rothy’, I had one thought. 

‘What a waste’. 

If only I could make it continue producing magical power indefinitely. With this one stone, I could cast Meteor ten times before it was drained and turned to dust. 

The fact that a single stone could even withstand ten castings of Meteor was already a miracle…… But if it could generate magical power forever?

Then I could cast Meteor not just ten times, but thousands. The war would be overturned in an instant and this harsh era of suffering would finally end. 

Peace would finally return to the continent……

I thought about animal testing. Many would condemn me for it, but with a magic stone of this magnitude, worries about morals and ethics were a luxury we couldn’t afford. 

Magic stone implantation into living beings is an experiment no one had ever succeeded in. If I could pull this off, the world would hail me as a hero…… 

I was pushing forward through the blizzard when I heard it—the sound of a child crying. Just ten metres from the cave where I’d discovered the magic stone was a child with snow-white hair, lying alone and weeping. 

When I saw the child, I instinctively drew on my magic and measured their physical age. 

The child was ten. Not nine, not eleven… a perfect ten. 

The exact right age for magic stone implantation. 

‘Why’s the child here, alone and crying’, I thought.

There were no other living beings around, and the blizzard that was raging then had buried the area in snowfall. When I hugged the child, they clung to me like a young animal seeking warmth. Looking at that snow-white hair and luminous emerald green eyes, I wondered. 

Was this also Seará’s providence? Did Seará… grant me permission?

It was a child who would’ve died anyway had I not found them. A ten-year-old child discovered alongside a magic stone containing, immeasurable, vast magical power. 

With certainty in my heart, I hesitated no longer. 

Harrié closed the translated research journal. So far, he’d made it through thirty-two pages. So far, the journal was less a research log and more a personal diary. But because the encryption was layered, it was impossible to skip ahead and just decode sections. He’d no choice but to read through the tedious diary. 

“It feels like counting grains of sand on a beach to find a speck of gold.”

“Still, we did learn something. We now know the boy was found near the cave where the magic stone was discovered, almost immediately after the stone was picked up. If we report this to His Imperial Majesty and frame it as Seará’s will, he might be swayed.”

“No, he’d say our God would never do such a thing. He’s a devout follower of Seará, but not in the way we are.”

“Ah, I see…”

“But you’re not entirely wrong. We did make progress. We know that the child had a magic stone implanted. That means Yolone Sirin succeeded not long after beginning his experiments. The details of the procedure should appear within the next few pages. Just bear with it a little longer.”

Yes, Master.”

Harrié reassured his disciples and subordinates back to the lab with words of encouragement. Left alone, he sank into thought. There was one thing he hadn’t shared with the mages. 

Those thirty-two corpses. 

If Rothy had been the first test subject and he succeeded on the first try, why’d the following children failed? There’d to be something unique about Rothy. If that were the case, then Yolone Sirin’s implantation method mightn’t have worked on ‘every ten-year-old’—just Rothy. 

I really need to retrieve it.

Half a year had passed since the archduke stole the living magic stone. Since then, that child had captured the Northerners’ hearts by reactivating the climate-control tremuhle, then cemented his place by restoring the Great Northern Mine within half a day. And now, the child was travelling with Theon through the monster infested regions like Hydra’s Nest and Devil’s Icefield.

Their next destination should be Siren’s Sea. 

That’d be their final stop. Beyond the western waters of Falsen lay the deep sea where the merdevils lived. They were evil creatures that could move freely between sea and land, luring humans with their beautiful songs before dragging them to their lairs to devour them. 

After contemplating for a moment, Harrié took out a round orb from the cabinet. It was an expensive communication trehmule that enabled users to facetime each other over long distances. After infusing the device with magical power, he waited for the connection to establish. 

A man with sharp, wolf-like light livid-coloured^[1] eyes appeared. It was the Swordmaster of Givarche. 

—Harrié Geelin.

“Your Highness.”

Ken Bane had become second in line for Givarche’s throne—it was only a matter of time before he ascended the throne. 

—Took you long enough. Have you decoded the text?

“Yes, but there’s nothing of substance. There’s still nothing regarding the experiments. It ends with him picking up the magic stone. Reading it was a waste of time. 

—I’ll be the judge of that. Send it over.

“Well……”

Ken Bane’s eyebrows shot up. 

—What the hell are you playing at now?

“There should be a give and take. I gave you the information about the living magic stone and the research journal, and now you want me to provide you with the decoded text. What do I get in return?”

—Wasn’t our deal that you could experiment with it after I obtained the living magic stone?

“It’s just that Your Highness seems rather far from completing your ‘assignment’.”