Chapter – 18…
The Oath to Mana, commonly known as the Mana Oath, is a type of promise that only those who can sense and utilize mana can make.
It is an absolute token of trust, used to prove that there is not a single speck of room for betrayal in that promise.
The moment the oath-taker breaks the promise, they become hostile to all the mana in the entire world.
It meant that their bodies would no longer be able to accept mana, rendering them unable to use any supernatural ability that utilizes mana.
If that were all, the situation might be somewhat manageable.
But in the Istalanisian Chronicles, mana was, in fact, a branch of life force.
The power that allows children to play tirelessly,
maintains youth,
and heals the wounds of the injured.
That was the definition of life force I had written, and betraying mana meant forsaking the benefits of all those things one might take for granted.
Easily getting tired,
aging quickly,
even minor bruises not healing naturally.
It was a kind of curse.
The frustrating point was that the Mana Oath could not be revoked by any means.
If it was a contract involving another party, even if the other party later deemed it unnecessary, the promise had to be fulfilled exactly as sworn at the time.
In short, it was inflexible.
Therefore, when swearing an oath to mana, one must deliberate repeatedly.
Only things that can absolutely be kept should be uttered aloud.
Is there any loophole in the oath?
What benefit will I gain from earning the other party’s trust through this oath?
Meticulously, and then even more meticulously.
Finally, think one more time, carefully.
It’s a story about how one should never do it out of childish pride.
If you don’t want to waste your life in vain.
“Uh, how did things come to this…?”
“That’s what I’d like to know.”
Here is a woman who seems destined to waste her life in vain.
She stared despondently at the utterly messy room with a face that seemed to bear all the despair in the world.
Was it twelve hours until the deadline?
I forcibly stopped the woman, who was panicking and running around the room aimlessly, not knowing what to do.
Her eyes had already fallen into a state of panic.
“Calm down. Do you have any idea where the Chief might have gone?”
“I, I don’t know. He’s not the type to go out much in the first place. Whenever he had to go out, he always told me his destination, so this is a first… And seeing the room in such disarray, I wonder how urgent his business must have been…….”
“When was the last time you saw the Chief?”
“Last night. There were no signs of anything strange until then. I even told him that someone wanted to meet him. He readily agreed, so I wasn’t worried at all, but then he suddenly disappeared like this…….”
“You didn’t tell him about the Mana Oath, did you?”
“If I had, the Chief wouldn’t have disappeared like this without a word… but I would have had to listen to him scold me for being rash for the next ten years.”
“That’s much better than failing to keep the oath.”
“…Who knew this would happen?”
You don’t make oaths lightly precisely because you don’t know what will happen.
I closed my mouth, about to say that.
It wasn’t my place to say that.
Wasn’t I the one who forced this upon her?
Moreover, criticizing something that has already happened didn’t sit right with me.
Instead of making such pointless remarks, I lost myself in thought.
The Chief of the Phoenix Brigade was a truly mage-like figure, which also meant he was a person who disliked moving without reason.
For such a person to have business, it would mostly be business related to the Magic Tower, and it must be a fairly significant incident.
He wasn’t someone with so much free time that he would personally attend to matters that didn’t even require his movement.
And such significant incidents were highly likely to be events described in the Istalanisian Chronicles.
“What was the date today?”
“August 12th.”
“…….”
The woman started to ask why I was suddenly asking that, but I didn’t answer.
August 12th of the year Kang Juhyuk was summoned.
Magic Tower, Phoenix Brigade,
The Scarlet Sage’s unusual outing.
The keywords were plentiful.
One event flashed through my mind like lightning.
The Experiment of Immortality.
An event only described as a clue in the early part of the work, its entire content was that children were continuously disappearing in the city of Keindeia, where the Magic Tower was located.
The full story is revealed later, leading the protagonist to intervene, but due to failing to match the timing, a great sacrifice is paid.
And that great sacrifice was precisely the death of the Scarlet Sage.
Which meant, thinking conversely, if that experiment was stopped, the Scarlet Sage wouldn’t die.
Just like how I pulled out the Demon Sword in the cave beforehand to eliminate the Magic Tower’s sacrifice.
“Perfect timing.”
“Huh?”
“Let’s get out of here for now.”
The woman hesitated to move, like someone who didn’t understand what was going on.
And understandably so.
I placed my hand on her head as if stroking it.
Her large, wide-brimmed pointed hat was pushed down, covering her eyes.
Grabbing the still hesitant woman, I pulled her towards the outside and said.
“Let’s find him. The Chief.”
Bang!
The door, made of woven wooden planks, swung open violently and slammed roughly against the opposite wall.
It was a loud enough sound to make one think it might have broken from the impact.
I stepped out, my foot that kicked the door leading the way.
The pungent smell of chemicals that seemed to scrape the inside of the nose, and yellowish papers filled with writing that was unpleasantly twisted and turned.
Hmm. As expected of a mages’ warehouse, it’s unbearably gloomy.
I had a pointless observation about the sight before me.
The woman, startled by my actions, exclaimed.
“This is infiltration! If you make such a loud noise, we’ll be caught!”
“Was this infiltration?”
“Then what else do you call sneaking into another clan’s warehouse?!”
“It’s fine. There’s no way to open it without getting caught anyway. Rather than struggling with the lock, it’s perfect to just blow it away in one go.”
“That’s only natural since who knows how many security spells are installed! In the first place, does it make sense to turn a door with multiple layers of immobilization spells into rags with just a few sword strikes and one kick? You brute with only strength! What are you going to do now? Remedea will come swarming here right away!”
Just as she said.
The place we had come to was a warehouse built on the outskirts of the city outside the Magic Tower, belonging to one of the Magic Tower’s clans, Remedea Frontsages.
There was a mage who seemed to be the warehouse keeper loitering around, so I appropriately struck his neck to knock him out.
I let the woman’s excessively shrill words go in one ear and scanned the inside of the warehouse.
Processed bricks formed a square space, and under crimson glowing lights, it was just filled with shelves and boxes.
It was exactly the visual one would imagine when thinking of a warehouse.
I picked up and pocketed a few items placed on the shelves.
As expected of a prestigious clan’s warehouse, there were high-purity magic stones, dried Mandragora with its eyes open, and various other things worth taking.
The woman, now seeming to have no energy left to be angry, spoke with an already tired face.
“That’s a crime, you know?”
“You’ll be an accomplice then.”
“I have no intention of that! This is no good. I need to report this to the Magic Tower, even now.”
“If I get detained by the Magic Tower, you won’t be able to meet the Phoenix Brigade’s Chief either, and naturally, that would mean you betraying your oath with mana. Are you okay with that?”
“Is that a threat?”
“Enough of the pointless talk. Is there anywhere you sense a magical reaction?”
“Huh? This isn’t a place for research, and there’s no one handling mana nearby, so there’s no way that kind of thing would be he…….”
“There is, right?”
“…Yes.”
It seemed that even as a half-baked mage, she could at least sense the flow of mana around her.
The woman glanced at me, and when I asked where about, she pointed to a corner of the warehouse piled high with boxes.
“Over there. Those boxes… or rather, underneath them, perhaps?”
“Let’s clear them away.”
The boxes piled up crudely, like tangled vines, were light as if there was nothing inside.
And that was correct.
These weren’t placed in the warehouse for their original purpose, that is, to store and contain something.
I quickly moved the boxes aside, revealing a wooden floor without a speck of dust.
Without hesitation, I grabbed and tore apart the seams between the wooden planks, easily revealing the contents inside.
The woman, who had been watching what I was doing intently, approached and said.
“Oh my… It’s a magic circle. What were those Remedea guys trying to do in a warehouse that they made something like this, even using those precious magic stones? And even hid it.”
“Smells suspicious, doesn’t it?”
“Can’t deny that.”
“Can you figure it out?”
“Just leave it to me. I’m confident in deciphering magic circles.”
“You’d better do it quickly. It seems they’re swarming this way.”
“Well, the security spells must have gone off, so it’s about time they come… Speaking of which, shouldn’t we run away then? Even now. I don’t even get what your purpose was in coming to this warehouse in the first place.”
“If we just uncover the identity of this magic circle, there will be no problem.”
“You sound like someone who knows what this is?”
“No way.”
The woman scrutinized me with a suspicious look, but she was no Eileen; there was no way a mere mage could figure anything out.
I met her gaze.
Before long, as if giving up, the woman lowered her eyes and looked at the magic circle.
She pulled out a small notebook and writing tools from her bosom and began writing something down.
It seemed the curiosity about why Remedea had hidden something like this so tightly in their warehouse, combined with the urgency of the situation, drove her actions.
It was noisy outside.
The murmuring sounds lodged themselves in my heightened hearing.
Judging by the multiple footsteps echoing, it seemed there were more than one or two.
Standing behind the door, whose hinges were nearly torn off thanks to my hearty kick, I steadied my breathing.
Mages were not a group of individuals so kind-hearted as to gently escort intruders and listen to their stories and circumstances.
Especially if the opponent was a thief brazenly stealing precious materials.
And even more so if they themselves were shady bastards!
The footsteps of an unknown number of individuals drew near to close proximity.
I took a step back.
Sensing someone trying to open the door from the other side by grabbing the handle, I firmly put strength into my legs.
And just like when I entered, but this time from the inside, I powerfully kicked the door back around.
Bang!
With another kick, this time without the aid of any magical treatment, the door flew out of the warehouse as if shattered.
A bonus was that one person, who I presumed was standing on the other side, got caught up in the door and flew away with it.
He flew several meters, defying gravity, and landed with a thud on the floor, his body trembling before soon going limp.
He probably wasn’t dead, just knocked out from the impact.
Only then could I see the situation outside clearly.
There were five mages in total who had come to the warehouse.
One was lying sprawled out far away, so four remained.
They were all wearing black robes.
Just in case it’s not known, let me say that this meant they were members of Remedea Frontsages.
They seemed startled by the sight of a person flying away and still hadn’t gathered their wits.
As if unable to comprehend the situation, they stood blankly, looking at each other.
I didn’t miss that opportunity, grabbed the arm of the nearest mage, and slammed him onto the ground in a suplex.
“What the hell are you doing?!”
I had no reason or leisure to answer.
I picked up the large staff, about two meters in diameter, that the slammed mage had dropped, and with both hands, put strength into it and broke it in half.
Instantly, the slammed mage’s face turned pale.
Tsk. If it was important, you should have kept it safe.
I threw the now wood fragments, that were once a staff, like a javelin forward.
One mage in its trajectory let out a strange groan and tumbled sideways.
Finally seeming to fully recognize me as an enemy, the remaining mages pulled out staffs of various kinds and began muttering something.
They were chanting incantations.
Of course, I had no intention of just watching idly.
I quickly moved my feet, grabbed the collar of the next closest mage.
The unnecessarily fluttering robe in this weather, which wasn’t even hot, caught very well in my grasp.
Even though his collar was grabbed, the guy didn’t let go of his staff, nor did he stop mumbling with his mouth.
At least he has the basics down.
But if the activation is this slow…
I threw a punch straight into his jaw.
Blood stained my clenched fist.
A few white pieces that looked like teeth scattered in the air.
I heard the sound of bones dislocating upon impact, so probably his jaw was dislocated too.
He’ll likely be living on porridge for several months.
Not my problem, though.
I threw the guy, who fainted from just one punch, onto the floor.
And as the remaining guys seemed to have finished their chants, three or four black arrows made of magical power flew rapidly towards me.
I felt sorry for using the cute expression ‘arrows’ as they were quite thick and fast.
Their momentum was so fierce that I was convinced that meeting them with my fists was not a good idea unless I wanted to live the rest of my life as a cripple with nothing below the wrist.
Having no choice, I drew my sword.
