episode_0153

The first thought that came to mind was, ‘Did Ryu Jinseong do something?’ given that there were only a limited number of individuals who could wield the darkness attribute.

Ryu Seeun is right here with us, isn’t she? Then it must be Ryu Jinseong’s doing, right?

Still, I decided not to overthink it. Misjudging Ryu Jinseong was enough during the Cheongsongje.

There was no time for the elevator, so we headed straight for the emergency stairs. I flung open the door and climbed the stairs directly to the top floor.

“Father?!”

Ryu Seeun, who had taken the lead, urgently flung open the office door. So urgent was she that dark handprints were left on the doorknob.

Her expression clearly showed her worry that something might have gone wrong with the experiment, or that something bad might have happened to her adoptive father.

But.

“…You’ve come.”

The scene revealed beyond the office was unexpectedly peaceful. The dark mana wasn’t wildly rampaging as expected, nor was there anything of the sort.

Only a somewhat smashed work desk and chair, and scattered piles of documents, were present.

In the middle of it all, Ryu Jinseong stood weakly. He was leaning against the remnants of the half-broken desk, gasping for breath.

He let out a sigh.

“Father…? Are you alright?”

Ryu Seeun asked in a slightly relieved voice. His safety was confirmed, but some worry still remained.

Ryu Jinseong waved his hand and replied.

“I’m fine, it’s nothing important.”

“Even so, the room seems quite a mess…”

I chimed in. At my hesitant mutter, Ryu Jinseong finally looked at me.

He chuckled.

A calm, wry smile appeared on his lips.

“You’ve come as well, son-in-law.”

At that single remark, I, who had been looking around, turned my head back. Ryu Jinseong was nonchalantly staring at me, and I was dumbfounded, so I asked back.

“Why… am I your son-in-law…?”

“I know you’re engaged.”

You say that knowing full well? When I glared at him in disbelief, Ryu Jinseong laboriously detached himself from the desk and cracked his arms.

“Well, it’s because I’m sure even you wouldn’t ignore my daughter. Wouldn’t you agree?”

“Well, that’s…”

I reflexively tried to answer, then flinched and stopped. It seemed I almost answered too thoughtlessly just now.

Did this mean I was thinking of Ryu Seeun in that way subconsciously?

Of course, excluding ambiguously special cases like Violet, it’s true that I’ve involved myself with most connections with the intention of taking responsibility for them.

Still, it wasn’t something I should say with Cheon Soyul’s eyes blazing.

I apologized briefly.

“My bad.”

“…I didn’t say anything?”

“Anyway, sorry…”

Cheon Soyul was quite dumbfounded, but anyway.

I turned back to Ryu Jinseong with a cough.

“So…”

I had to grasp the situation, after all. Glancing at the dark mana still filling the office, I spoke.

“What happened, Ryu Jinseong?”

“Don’t you intend to call me father-in-law?”

“…”

“Hmm. It was a joke.”

I’d known this man’s peculiar personality for a long time, but he seemed to have evolved in an even stranger direction.

What on earth could have caused such a change of heart since that Cheongsongje?

“I apologize for unintentionally causing this commotion.”

Setting aside my hesitation, Ryu Jinseong spoke first. He hadn’t intended to cause a ruckus, but there had been a very small error.

When I asked what on earth he’d been doing before this happened, his reply was simple.

“I was dissecting my circle.”

“?”

A crazy statement, saying he was dissecting an organ that was essentially a wizard’s life with his own hands.

My brain wasn’t the only one that froze instantly; Ryu Seeun’s and Cheon Soyul’s did too.

“…Father? Did I mishear you?”

“You dissected your circle? What? Huh?”

Ryu Seeun, first, asked with trembling eyelashes, followed by Cheon Soyul making a strange expression as if she had witnessed something incomprehensibly bizarre.

“No, why would you do such a crazy thing…?”

My reaction was no different. Isn’t that obvious? It was an Archmage’s circle, no less.

The title of the strongest, held by fewer than twenty individuals throughout the vast world: Archmage.

Why would he dissect it? Did he suddenly feel great skepticism about magic and want to abandon everything and return to nature?

‘…Is it because he’s a Nature Mage?’

Such a crazy act was indeed something a Nature Mage would do. Especially considering Gwon Hwang’s testimony that he lost his emotions due to his connection with darkness—perhaps Ryu Jinseong might be the craziest Archmage in the world.

Just then, Ryu Jinseong quietly opened his mouth.

“I won’t call it rude, staring at me as if I’m crazy, but.”

I flinched.

“Still, I’d like you to listen to my explanation before judging. I didn’t do this without any reason.”

Realizing belatedly that my thoughts were fully visible on my face, I hastily tried to compose myself, but Ryu Jinseong raised his hand as if it didn’t matter.

And the ‘darkness’ in the air began to gather above his pale hand.

It swirled…

The dark fragments, flickering like dust, or perhaps like tiny fairies, soon formed into a single sphere.

An incredibly intense crystal, noticeable even to those who weren’t Nature Mages.

“That’s…”

My expression hardened, and Ryu Seeun, taking it a step further, raised her voice almost in shock.

“Father…! Surely, surely you haven’t separated your domain? Why on earth!?”

The atmosphere instantly froze. As all four wizards present fell silent with serious expressions, it was only Lee Seo who was slow to grasp the situation, looking bewildered.

It was clear from her expression that she was thinking, ‘D-Domain separation? What’s that?’, so I whispered softly.

“It’s the process of turning a wizard’s circle outwards, making the domain accumulated over a lifetime into a sort of elixir. It’s primarily a process undertaken by elderly wizards nearing the end of their lifespan, but…”

“…W-What? B-But, Captain, you’re only twenty-nine, aren’t you?”

At my explanation, Lee Seo looked visibly flustered and turned to me. At her gaze, asking if it made sense, I could only shrug.

What was I supposed to do if she asked me that? I was just as curious and dumbfounded.

But one thing was certain.

Who would be the owner of that sphere?

“Ah, Father…”

As if she instinctively guessed it, Ryu Seeun’s voice trembled, her expression utterly confused.

Facing her, the Archmage, Black Heaven Ryu Jinseong, straightened his back, resting his hand on the table.

At that moment, I couldn’t help but recall the Moonlight Cult Leader, Haru.

Back then, when I was explaining the original work, which I’d discarded after only reading the prologue.

In the original work of this world, in that future, Cheon Soyul was called the Thunder Lord. Baek Ayun was the Fist Saint, and Kanzaki was the Vampire Queen…

At the time, I’d roughly brushed it off, but my memory was clear. So what about Ryu Seeun?

‘Black Heaven Ryu Seeun.’

Only she inherited the epithet of the previous generation, not a new one of her own.

What was the reason? Would the cause and effect truly be simple?

I thought not. The development of the original work, its circumstances, might have been different from now, but I had a premonition that the ‘result’ of her receiving the name Black Heaven would not change.

“Take it, my daughter.”

It was Ryu Jinseong’s gesture, proving just that. Calmly and naturally, he passed the sphere of darkness, containing his everything, to Ryu Seeun.

Ryu Seeun’s expression stiffened.

“…I c-can’t accept it.”

Her first words were denial, refusal. She still couldn’t shake off her confusion, and forcefully restrained her trembling arms.

However, Ryu Jinseong, as if he had expected that as well, calmly continued.

“Anyway, the domain has already been separated. There’s no way to reverse it. Someone other than me must absorb this sphere.”

“…”

“And passing this to you doesn’t mean I’ll become completely powerless. While the prestige of an Archmage might disappear, it’s enough to maintain my position as Captain of the Border Defense Force.”

“So…!”

Ryu Seeun stopped listening midway and tightly closed her eyes.

“So, why do you have to do this?! Were you dissatisfied with my growth? Did you think I wouldn’t be able to fulfill my role as a proper wizard without inheriting your domain…!”

Her voice was quite indignant. And indeed, it was understandable. I, too, wanted to sympathize with Ryu Seeun’s feelings this time.

In other words, ‘Was there really a need to do this?’

In the distant future, when their lifespan as a wizard neared its end, the transfer of their domain for future generations is something most wizards do.

I’d vaguely heard that old man Hong Myeongseon was considering it for Yeonhwa.

But as Lee Seo pointed out, isn’t Ryu Jinseong still quite young?

At twenty-nine, he was incredibly young among high-ranking wizards.

Even without making the extreme decision of separating his domain, he could have helped his disciple-slash-daughter grow while maintaining his own abilities.

“I don’t need it. I won’t accept it! Just absorb it yourself right now, Father. Even if there’s a loss, it’s better than not absorbing it at all—”

“Seeun.”

That was when. Ryu Jinseong raised his head, cutting off Ryu Seeun’s sharp voice abruptly.

Ryu Seeun instantly stiffened.

“…Fa-ther?”

I felt like I could vaguely guess the reason. Come to think of it, that man had never called Ryu Seeun by her name before.

Perhaps this was the very first time.

Ryu Jinseong softly regulated his breathing and continued to speak.

“I have a limit. As a wizard, a very cruel and clear wall blocks the path forward for me.”

“…W-What? What do you mean by that?”

“The day I first met you, ten years ago.”

Ryu Seeun stopped breathing. Taking advantage of her automatically ceasing to breathe, Ryu Jinseong began to recount the past with a somewhat distant look in his eyes.

“I could say I had already reached my limit. I excessively used Nature Magic that didn’t suit my domain, and as a result, I was able to wipe out seven A-grade demonic beasts and dozens of B-grade ones, but.”

“…”

“As a result, I lost my emotions. I’m a body that can’t feel any particular emotion about that fact now, but I could still recognize reality.”

Ryu Jinseong subtly lowered his head and looked at his hands. Then, with the mana he gently drew up, he activated his unique magic, ‘Black Sky’.

His eyes were covered in pitch black, just as Ryu Seeun’s had once before, but…

Flicker!

That change didn’t last long. With his eyes quickly returning to their original color, Ryu Jinseong let out a shallow breath.

“…In Nature Magic, communion is paramount. Seeun, just as you prioritize harmony with plants.”

And at his continuing words, I let out a gasp of realization.

I felt like I could understand what he meant.

“You’re saying that… such communion is no longer possible for you…?”

“Exactly.”

Ryu Jinseong nodded silently.

“Once my emotions disappeared, my domain didn’t develop well like before. It might be different for a regular attribute wizard, but for me, who deals with nature, such a change is fatal.”

“Even amidst all that, I somehow succeeded in reaching the Archmage domain…” Ryu Jinseong muttered, then let out a small laugh.

“That was merely a domain achieved too easily, relying on innate talent. Even that has reached its limit, so it won’t be possible anymore.”

“Since you can’t advance your domain anymore… you’re going to implant the magical power you’ve accumulated into your daughter? To create a new Archmage?”

“Yes, the more power, the better.”

Ryu Jinseong casually affirmed.

I frowned and asked again.

“Was there really a need to go that far…? Ryu Seeun would have been able to reach the Archmage domain on her own anyway. In about ten more years, that is.”

I understood his meaning, but it was still just as difficult to accept. My tone, which burst out, naturally held doubt.

I couldn’t help but feel that the timing of the domain separation was too early.

However.

“—The world now.”

The words Ryu Jinseong spoke next swept away even those doubts.

“It’s not so whole. Do you know, son-in-law? Others might not, but for me, who has had a close relationship with nature… I can’t help but notice, even if I wanted to be ignorant.”

“…Huh?”

“The world will soon face a crisis of destruction.”

“…!”

“Soon, a disaster far surpassing the Jormungandr Incident of ten years ago will arrive.”