「Earth Attribute Magic – ‘Earth Break’ has been successfully cast.」
「Earth Attribute Magic – ‘Earth Break’ is registered as a skill.」
「Skill: Earth Break」
「Unleashes a powerful explosion on the ground and destroys terrain.」
「Non-Attribute Magic – ‘Wizard Eye’ has been successfully cast.」
「Non-Attribute Magic – ‘Wizard Eye’ is registered as a skill.」
「Skill: Wizard Eye」
「Creates a mage’s eye that shares vision.」
「‘Wizard Eye’ can only be created within your current field of vision.」
「You can create another ‘Wizard Eye’ within the field of vision of an existing ‘Wizard Eye.’」
「Nature Attribute Magic – ‘Entangle’ has been successfully cast.」
「Nature Attribute Magic – ‘Entangle’ is registered as a skill.」
「Skill: Entangle]
「Binds the specified target with intertwined grass and trees.」
「The mana required varies according to the surrounding environment.」
「Strength depends on the amount of mana used.」
It was a satisfying day, having mastered all the 4th Circle magic I’d decided to learn.
It was only natural to verify not just their registration to my skill window, but also all their effects.
The dramatically more flamboyant Earth Break felt as if it could overturn the continent, and Entangle instantly turned the surroundings into the heart of a forest.
As the level of magic increased, the effects of the skills naturally became even flashier.
And to top it off, Wizard Eye summoned an archmage in a pointed hat into the sky, covering the air with countless eyes.
・No matter when I look, it really suits your style.
“What do you mean by that?”
There’s just something about it.
Whatever Purnel said, it was a pleasant day.
After all, I’d completed all the 4th Circle spells.
Even the purification process was progressing smoothly.
Every day, within my limits, I used Purification to cleanse the dragon’s soul, and though slow, I could see the soul gradually becoming cleaner.
Moreover, there was an added benefit.
Casting magic every day until I ran out of mana, without taking a break.
This unexpectedly turned out to be effective training, making the flow of mana much smoother and the casting speed of spells noticeably faster. My total mana also increased, albeit slightly.
According to Purnel, this meant my vessel as a mage was expanding.
And aside from those magical effects, there was something else I’d gained.
“How much longer do you think it’ll take?”
Regarda now spoke to me first quite naturally.
It meant we’d grown rather close.
Of course, it might just be Hio’s personal impression… but we’d certainly exchanged many conversations, and things were much more comfortable than before.
“Well, there’s still a long way to go. But the pace is picking up, so don’t rush me too much.”
“I didn’t ask because I wanted to rush you.”
“Come on… I can see the anticipation written all over your face.”
“…That’s not it.”
Hio never missed a day of purifying the dragon, and Regarda never left the dragon’s side even for a moment.
Naturally, spending more time together made the distance between us shrink.
“If I had to guess, once we’ve purified over half, the speed will increase much more. I can sense the cleansed soul trying to purify itself.”
“Is that so? You can sense that?”
“Yeah. It may look like it’s asleep, but that just means it’s working really hard, right?”
This wasn’t just a platitude.
It was a fact I’d discovered after weeks of observing the dragon’s soul.
Perhaps because it was a soul of such high standing, even in these circumstances, it struggled to return to its original state.
Of course, the purified part was still only a small fraction, so the movement was weak, but…
“Come to think of it, if the dragon could be purified by this kind of magic, why didn’t it just cast Purification on itself? Surely it could use purification spells much more powerful than this.”
It was half a murmur, spoken as if to myself.
I didn’t really expect an answer from Regarda.
Whenever it came to the past, Regarda always clammed up.
But perhaps the closeness I’d felt with him was real.
“I… know nothing about magic. Guarding the Dragon’s Temple. That was my mission from the moment I was born.”
Regarda’s heavy lips began to open slowly.
“But I do know the reason. Back then, the miasma was incomparably stronger than it is now. All dragons were tainted before they had any chance to respond, and that was the beginning of the war.”
“So… you’re saying the miasma is that much weaker now?”
“Correct. The seal the dragon placed upon itself and the result of its efforts, I suppose.”
It wasn’t hard to notice that his usually calm voice sounded a little different.
After hearing it every day and growing so close, I could tell.
However, even if I noticed the shift in emotion, understanding what that emotion was became all the more difficult.
It was something subtle and complex.
It was hard to find the right word to define the feeling.
But if I had to pick one word…
“You must have been pretty close to the dragon.”
Friendship.
Perhaps you could call it a deep bond or even camaraderie.
“Aerial. That’s the name of the dragon who runs with the wind.”
“I see. Aerial, huh…”
And I am the dragon’s knight who guards the temple.
Even as Purification continued to activate without pause.
Regarda gazed at the shimmering light of mana at the tip of Hio’s staff and began to recount old memories.
Da.
E.
Ga.
Da.
“A dragon’s knight is born with that destiny and is with the dragon from birth.”
“So you too?”
Regarda gave a slight nod.
“So all my old memories are painted in shades of green.”
To young Regarda, Aerial was a parent.
When he grew a little older, she became the greatest teacher in the world.
When he matured into an adult, Aerial became his only friend.
She was Regarda’s parent, teacher, and also a friend.
Regarda Ovierre.
The dragon’s knight who guards the Dragon’s Temple and spreads the sacred will of a great being to the world.
Even after a thousand years, he faithfully upheld his mission.
“For my sake, she would spend time in the form of an elf.”
But the way he reminisced about the past was rather ordinary.
Always that gentle, green hair.
A voice as cool and fresh as the wind.
The breeze that swept through the forest of lush foliage.
Those deep, mysterious green eyes that seemed to pierce the world’s truth.
Once he started recalling memories, they poured out one after another, unstoppable.
Though he now had a different body.
Though now he didn’t sleep, eat, or even require rest.
Though even other feelings were fading little by little, those memories of that time could never be forgotten.
Because he must not forget them, he remained to this day.
He endured a thousand years to fulfill his mission as the last remaining dragon’s knight in this world.
But perhaps that was a mission he could never complete. Maybe it was a hope never granted to him.
‘Was it because his expression looked happy as he spoke of such ancient memories?’
Hio’s voice, cutting into Regarda’s recollection, was desperately urgent.
“Regarda.”
The bright light of Purification had vanished before I knew it.
“Seal the Gate.”
At those incomprehensible words, Regarda’s gaze turned to Hio, and soon, he saw it.
“Until I return, never… absolutely never…”
Hio’s eyes, sunken and deep.
That serious expression, one I’d never seen before.
“The dragon must not awaken.”
With those words, Hio Pavlenko vanished as if snuffed out.
There was no sense of his presence anywhere.
It was as if he’d disappeared from the world in an instant.
Something… ominous was about to happen.
And as if to prove that instinct, Regarda’s senses caught onto a black miasma.
That all-too-familiar, cursed aura.
It was emanating from the coast of Arilleia. From the place where the ominous Gate had stood.
Regarda knew exactly what it was.
“…Is it beginning again?”
Without a moment’s hesitation, Regarda headed in that direction.
Calling for the sea dragon, imbuing his spear with force, barely suppressing his rising anger as he ran.
So he did not see it.
“How dare…”
The dragon’s eyes trembling ever so slightly.
***
Incheon Airport B-rank Gate, nicknamed ‘Ant Tunnel,’ cleared by awakened Kim Cheolhwan, who names his most respected awakened as ‘Guseong’ Nam Tae-min.
[According to BBT, Asia’s most influential ‘First Awakened #1, Guseong Nam Tae-min.’]
[First Awakened Lee Ki-han, Kim Ki-seong, Han Yura… a mysterious gathering?]
–
‘Why are the First Awakened so special?’
[Unknown facts about Taeryong Guild Master Nam Tae-min.]
[France’s first awakened Kriton, missing for months?]
[The disappearing First Awakened. What’s the cause?]
[First Awakened Nam Tae-min…….]
[The first…….]
……
All the piled-up articles were about the First Awakened.
A quiet room.
“Haa…”
Yoon Seulah took her eyes off the monitor, let out a sigh, and sank deep into her chair.
“What could it be, really?”
No longer Yoon Seulah, the awakened and Taeryong Guild member.
Since that day, she had left the Taeryong Guild behind and returned to her life as businesswoman Yoon Seulah.
That day, of course, was the day everything was shrouded in mystery.
A black Gate she’d never seen before.
Monsters spilling out that she’d never encountered before.
Too many oddities to count.
She hadn’t realized it at the time in the chaos, but Nam Tae-min clearly knew about that black Gate.
And not only him—the so-called First Awakened all seemed to know, and as soon as the black Gate appeared, they moved to block it immediately.
‘Isn’t that all too strange?’
That’s why she asked Nam Tae-min about it, but got no answer, and so Yoon Seulah left the Taeryong Guild.
Ka.
Da.
That’s something that should never have happened.
The balance of power was already abnormal.
Fame, authority, even strength—everything was monopolized by the First Awakened.
And if that wasn’t enough, they were controlling information no one else had?
‘What exactly are the First Awakened, and what are they plotting?’
Ever since that day, when all her doubts began, Yoon Seulah had devoted herself to investigating just that.
And the more she learned about them, the deeper her questions became.
They, the First Awakened, all shared some traits.
First, they disappeared from sight from time to time.
She’d found it odd even during her days in the Taeryong Guild.
Nam Tae-min was almost never seen except for major Gate assaults.
She’d thought he was just busy, but it turned out this was true of all the First Awakened.
And that wasn’t all.
They had their own internal hierarchy.
Le
No one could measure their abilities, so how did they rank themselves? Yet it was clear they knew and recognized the pecking order.
There was definitely some kind of connection between them.
And among them, Nam Tae-min was at a far higher level than she’d expected—that, she’d only recently discovered.
Da.
But that was the limit of what she could find.
[The First Awakened are overwhelmingly stronger than regular awakened.]
[There is a definite hierarchy among them, and Nam Tae-min is at the very top.]
Whenever she reached that point, she hit a wall.
She’d used every resource she had and uncovered a lot, but no matter how hard she tried, there was something she just couldn’t understand.
[Nam Tae-min was afraid of Hyunseung Lee.]
“…Hyunseung Lee.”
The mysterious man Nam Tae-min feared.
The man who possessed a power that could cover the sky with a blue sun—if she hadn’t seen it herself, she never would have believed it.
‘Who was he, and where had he disappeared to?’
Yoon Seulah had used every means at her disposal to investigate him…
“But there’s nothing. How can that be?”
Strangely, not a single piece of information surfaced.
It was as if someone had deliberately erased every record.
A man who appeared suddenly and vanished just as quickly.
She’d placed people at the first and last places he’d been seen, but so far, there was nothing.
This was where the trail ended.
The investigation simply wouldn’t proceed.
The First Awakened, who possessed information and kept it tightly controlled.
And the mysterious man even Nam Tae-min feared.
It seemed he was the key to everything…
Just as her thoughts reached that point, her phone chimed—ding—a message alert, snapping her out of her reverie.
Yoon Seulah glanced at the phone screen.
Two new text messages.
“Um… I’m not sure if I should even be reporting something like this, but…”
The sender was one of her operatives, someone she’d assigned to search for Hyunseung Lee, who for months had reported nothing unusual.
But this time, the message was something hard to understand.
“Some… cosplay? Patient? Some weirdo suddenly showed up?”
Yoon Seulah tilted her head, puzzled as she read it.
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