Rumors spread through the Golden Palace that an ominous energy was emanating.
Those who knew were all people who knew the Emperor had died, and those who had entered to loot the palace's belongings.
Since they all entered with ambitions to get their share and uniformly retreated in horror, it was true that strange things were happening inside the palace.
And strange things happened.
The mages who had remained to stabilize the chaotic capital were all collapsing with convulsions simultaneously.
It seemed someone had deliberately poisoned them, so an investigation began, but the result was even more shocking.
Mana Exhaustion.
Something was sucking up all the surrounding mana to gather high-purity mana.
That absorption was reaching even the mana of mages who had resistance.
It was the overwhelming pressure created by a giant mana storm, and who was the protagonist of that pressure?
'Erdes Roton.'
At first, I didn't think it was that woman.
The nature of the circles Erdes possessed cannot create such a mana storm.
Because for a Blue Circle owner, such indiscriminate absorption is rather dangerous.
So at first, I thought it might not be Erdes.
"The Blue Dragon intervened."
Then the story changes.
If she who is called the Phase of All Magic intervened in the Archmage's affairs, the conclusion was that this current situation was entirely possible.
Erica rested her chin on her hand and deduced this situation.
"Iorga-nim... then, could it be that she gave her Essence to Erdes...?"
"She gave away her own Essence?"
Ferda had also wondered if that was possible.
"Originally, Iorga-nim intended to give it to her fiancé as well. Because she thought that to find efficiency in magic, two divided parts were better than one giant whole."
"Fiancé, you say..."
Iorga had been engaged to a High Elf, but it fell through for some reason.
I remembered the conflict that continued because each blamed the other.
It wasn't important now, so I didn't develop that story further and just buried it.
Anyway, the Essence of Iorga who was the Phase of Magic, and the continent's strongest Archmage.
There was no need to think deeply.
"I cannot stop Erdes with my own hands."
"Why is that?"
"Because that child is a pitiful child."
"Isn't taking in those pitiful women your job?"
Erica's question was something Ferda had also been curious about.
"If I could take in everyone just because they're pitiful, how good would that be? But even I cannot dare touch certain things."
He let out a bitter breath of smoke.
"I couldn't help. Precisely, it was something I couldn't do."
"Then why did you come here and tell us this story?"
"Because that child has already stepped into the Witch's domain."
"You mean she Awakened the Red Circle?"
"Yes."
"Her Blue Circles have all shattered, and she's rapidly building a Red Circle Awakened by anger."
A Red Circle created from anger.
"If I get involved, I'll have to help Erdes according to the Philias rules. That's why I sought you two out."
"So you want us to kill Erdes?"
At that, Lucy exhaled cigarette smoke and answered.
"Death would be the second-best choice."
"She Awakened the Red Circle and is achieving rapid growth because of it, but isn't she already insane?"
"Since it's circle creation born of anger, yes. But I also think she can escape it."
Saying that, she shifted her gaze to Ferda.
"Right?"
Someone who escaped anger, and who can understand that death is the second-best choice.
That was only Ferda.
"Then shouldn't you at least give us a hint to make the best choice?"
There's far too little time to investigate.
Lucy smiled faintly and answered.
"I'll only tell you this."
She tore space again.
Returning to where she came from, she left her final words.
"Try to recall the Forgotten 14th."
"Forgotten 14th?"
There was no Lucy left to answer.
For Ferda, the meaning was incomprehensible.
It was far from the experiences he'd gone through so far, and the information in the future only he knew.
That meant the recipient of those words wasn't Ferda.
"The 14th..."
As Ferda guessed, Erica knew something.
Otherwise, she wouldn't react like that.
"When we moved as the expedition, didn't we say there were 13 people?"
"That's correct."
"Actually, there is a 14th member. Though it's ambiguous to even call them a member... Thinking back, we did go through life and death together. But there's no way that man would have ties to Erdes..."
"A man with ties to Erdes...?"
Hearing those words, something in Ferda's mind tried to awaken.
The feeling of chains tightly bound by magic breaking and loosening.
It seemed like something sunk at the bottom was floating up.
In the midst of that, Erica's words continued.
"Of course Erdes has no interest in men, but above all, she really hated that child."
That fragment began to show itself to Ferda.
The day she killed Erdes,
Erdes knelt and bowed her head.
The cheeky Archmage who never lowered her head to the Emperor or anyone submitted to the person she hated most.
And declared in her own voice.
-I, Erdes Roton, will submit to you.
Wetting her clothes on the muddy ground, she crawled and kissed the top of Ferda's foot.
-I'll do as you say. If you tell me to become a dog, I'll become a dog; if you tell me to lick, I'll lick your feet. So please... please...
Coincidence?
Erica and Erdes's voices were heard simultaneously.
-Lu, please spare that child's life at least. I beg you.
"That child's name was Lu."
The Magic Society's Lifetime Secretary.
He was Erdes's weakness.
Serdes Magic Society.
In the Society President's office, Secretary Lu was there.
He was naturally sitting in the Society President's seat, handling work in her stead.
"It's been awfully quiet lately..."
The fact that he wasn't busy was good, but at the same time, anxiety crept in.
Since this was where every mage on the Serdes Continent registered, it was a place that shouldn't be quiet for even a moment.
Work not dropping in a structure where work shouldn't stop meant the situation was that bad.
'When will the Society President return?'
Erdes is famous as a free spirit.
But at some point, she started sticking to the Empire.
He couldn't properly know the reason, but he could tell she was caught up in something serious.
As a secretary who had served her for a long time, Lu knew.
'Please let everything flow peacefully.'
Just as he was praying like that,
It became noisy outside the Society President's office.
-You can't just barge in like this, aaaaack!?
The sound of people flying through the air got closer and closer.
'They're coming for me!'
Lu tried to lock the door.
But the intruders' movements were even faster.
Kwang-dang!
"Eek!"
The door flew open violently, and Lu was pushed back.
Clutching his nearly broken nose, he looked up at the ruffians who had burst in.
"Are you Lu, Erdes's Lifetime Secretary??"
One was a familiar face.
The Tower Master he'd only watched from afar, Erica Iorga.
It was also known that she now operated as the Eastern Adventurer Guild Branch Master under the alias Eri, no longer the Tower Master.
And the other was a face he could never forget.
"Ferda Valdrova Regent...?"
The reason was because the demon incident unleashed in the Empire was said to be Regent Ferda's doing.
Because of those words, almost all controllers were dispatched to block the demons that invaded the Empire.
"I heard you're the culprit behind all the incidents, so why are Erica-nim and Regent Ferda here...?"
"Let's talk about that later."
"Sit down for now."
Swept up in Erica and Ferda's pace, Lu was forced to sit.
Erica unfolded magic toward his head.
Lu only vaguely knew it was magic used for investigation.
"How old are you?"
"M-me? I'm 40 this year..."
"Your face looks like a fresh 20-year-old though?"
Of course, it was absurd for Ferda, who was even fresher, to say that.
He answered for now.
"The Society President kept me by her side and prevented aging."
"So you accepted it like that?"
"She said so herself, what could I do?"
Lu didn't doubt it.
Erica, who had unfolded the magic, spoke.
"You're not 40. Your age can't be measured."
"What does that mean?"
"It means your life is bound elsewhere. It means the reason you don't age isn't because you're held by high-purity mana."
"Huh? Th-that can't be...? Then the explanation doesn't work, does it?"
"Then briefly tell me your life story from childhood this time."
"Uh... um, why are you doing this?"
"Didn't I say there's no time!?"
At the practically threatening tone, Lu spilled everything.
"I grew up under my countryside grandparents, lived as a farmer, then turned out to have talent for magic so... I entered this Magic Society?"
He calmly told his life story.
However, Erica's frown didn't ease easily.
"There's even memory manipulation. Haa..."
"Memory... manipulation?"
"Didn't you feel like your entire life was fabricated?"
"My life?"
Confused, Lu ended up refusing to answer.
"Who are you people to barge in here, ask about someone else's life, and act like thugs? If you have business with me, and it's about me, don't I at least have the right to know!"
Erica and Ferda exchanged glances.
They didn't speak, but they understood each other, and Erica calmly explained to him.
"We can't confirm it yet, but based on the results of interrogating and verifying you, the hypothesis we had in mind has gotten closer."
"What's that hypothesis?"
"We think Erdes fabricated your entire life."
The porter not included in the 13-person expedition.
It was a truly strange thing, but Erdes loved that porter.
"Even as a human named 'Lu'."
And that became obsession, and made her contract with a demon.
Family.
To someone, a greenhouse.
To someone, a sanctuary.
To someone, a harbor.
To Erdes Roton, family was nothing but shackles.
Her so-called mother was like that.
She sang that she sacrificed everything from the moment she gave birth to Erdes.
She must have done even prenatal music with that.
Actually, pregnancy is a fatal thing for a mage.
Because high-purity mana can threaten the fetus, that period must be spent living a powerless human life in a suppressed environment.
That great sacrifice stemmed from greed for advancement rather than maternal love.
Born into an alchemist family, she could've just learned alchemy.
But determined to make her a mage somehow, she threw her young child into a medicine barrel.
The fetus, more familiar with medicine than breast milk, began condensing mana from a young age, and even breathing was corrected to breathing optimized for mana circulation.
Thus, Erdes achieved 1st Circle before the concept of 'I' even formed.
-Endure! How much effort did I put into you! You're already trying to collapse!?
She screamed, not knowing if it was hysteria or encouragement.
Mom sacrificed for me.
So I must endure that much.
If I become a mage like that, someday she'll really look at me properly.
That's what she thought.
Until she was made to sit in that suspicious device.
"Our daughter..."
Seeing that incredibly gentle appearance, goosebumps rose instinctively.
Only then did she realize.
That everything was going wrong.
"It hurt a lot, didn't it? Mom will now free you from that pain..."
She couldn't tell if it was kindness or greed-stained desire.
She wanted to believe the remaining warmth was the former, but her head already knew it was the latter.
She knew the moment she saw the device's structure.
That it was applied with soul-switching magic.
She coveted a young, talented body.
So like a spare part, she tried to extinguish Erdes's mind and transfer herself there.
How was Erdes back then?
She said to just do it.
If sacrificing herself was the path to her mother's happiness, she said do it.
Her mother activated it without hesitation, and screams began to ring out.
-Aaaah!! Aaaaah!!!!
That wasn't coming from Erdes's mouth.
When she opened her eyes again, she saw some middle-aged woman unable to handle the mana flowing out, her head bursting.
That sight was truly bizarre.
It looked like something - whether demon or witch - was writhing and suffering in agony.
Like a villain in a fairy tale containing a story of poetic justice.
That day, Erdes laughed for the first time since birth.
As her mother, the sole bloodline of the Roton Family, disappeared, Erdes had to inherit the family.
Because she was young, numerous agents managed her assets, but there was no feeling of them caring for her.
Rather, they hoped she'd fall into depravity and the wrong path, and tempted her that way.
But Erdes, who had already tasted family's bitterness, knew she had to live alone.
She grew on her own, researched, and thus gained status and fame as a mage.
At 16, she took back everything the agents had taken.
She collected the embezzled amount with interest, and returned inflicted injuries with even greater pain.
It was justified revenge, but no one properly understood it.
And Erdes didn't try to be understood either.
She became alone again like that.
Even when she reached marriageable age and marriage talks were active, her front door was always quiet.
First, her achievements as a mage were far superior to not just her peers but other mages.
Second, her growth was significantly behind compared to other women.
Third, on top of that, she had a capricious personality no one could handle.
No one brought it up, and Erdes didn't think in that direction either.
'There's no greater tragedy than being born into the Roton Family.'
So let me live alone forever.
That's what she thought.
Until she fell for a certain Prince.
Blonde hair, blue eyes.
An appearance that seemed to shine with distinct features.
Erdes felt her heart flutter for a man for the first time.
But that didn't last long either.
Because she saw him blushing and softening while looking at a dignified, mature woman.
'Right. Who would love me?'
The only ones who'd love me are brats, perverts, or trash after my wealth.
I'll probably never experience love in my life.
I hate it.
Everything is hateful.
Memories of nothing but hatred.
'Really... was it like that?'
A sudden doubt arose.
A blank in the memories she traced back.
There's something important, but it won't come to mind.
'This is the greatest hatred among what I have.'
The greatest hatred that could fuel the Red Circle's movement.
It was sleeping beneath her chest.
'Why haven't I touched this?'
Every time circles stacked, she made all sorts of excuses, so why does she keep leaving this one sunk?
It was when that doubt peaked and she tried to touch it.
Suddenly, Erdes felt her head clearing up.
One more circle completed.
Already 7th Circle.
She was someone who had already stayed at 7th Circle, but it was an unprecedented speed.
Instead of marveling at that astonishing speed, she asked a question.
'Why was I gathering power like this?'
Some things are vivid as if right before her eyes, some are terribly blurry.
She artificially kept what was needed for emotional turbulence in front, and put what interfered behind.
'The reason I gather power like this... is because I need power.'
Until now, I couldn't stop it because I lacked power, and couldn't kill because I lacked power.
For that, I must clear away everything that could be an obstacle to training and pursue only power.
'So I must forget.'
Focus only on the emotions of anger and hatred.
Hatred begets hatred, revenge begets revenge.
Just doing that gives me enormous power.
If I just reach 9th Circle like this, I can grant a wish.
The reason I live, only that is enough.
Even if I forget everything...
That's the path I must take.
"Erdes Magic Society President!"
That was when.
A voice pierced Erdes's ears.
Simultaneously, the Red Circle seated in her chest surged.
The culprit of all this incident.
-Ferda...!
Behind him, Erica was also visible.
They stood firmly on two legs.
Ferda opened his mouth.
"You're making a huge mistake right now."
Erdes answered as if dumbfounded.
-You bastard... dare lecture me...?
The mana pressure erupting from within her body grew even stronger.
Ferda's body also staggered.
"I know very well what it means to rage and hate to build circles."
Sincerity was felt in that young Ferda's words.
"But in the end, you don't know what you raged so much for. It's still blurry, isn't it?"
Erdes didn't listen.
-I live to kill you. That's enough!
"What you lived for. What you longed for so long. You'll forget it all. Doing that... will you be able to be happy?"
It's annoying.
Why am I letting that bastard keep babbling?
Do I even empathize with that?
Listening to those words, because I know I should stop?
No, I couldn't believe such lukewarm things.
There was a rational reason to leave this situation alone.
-Aaaah... I see.
Thinking it through, Erdes realized.
-I wondered why I kept letting you babble...
It wasn't because something still remained in her heart.
-You were my key.
Erdes, a realm she thought she'd never reach in her life.
8th Circle.
She had reached that realm now.
Kuuuuu—!
A blue pillar of light calling destruction soared.
Erdes's body melted into that pillar.
As if she herself was mana, and this continent itself.
Within that, a pair of light sources looked down at Ferda.
Ferda was kneeling.
He could feel him unable to withstand that pressure.
But there was no embarrassment of having made a bad move on his face.
"I know."
All of it was design.
Erdes may know the Red Circle like a doctor, but Ferda is the Red Circle's owner.
Moreover, he experienced it twice, so he knows well.
"I waited for the moment your emotions resolve."
The sense of relief felt when a circle forms.
That moment is the only moment when conversation works best.
Actually, Erdes's anger, which had reached its peak, calmed in an instant.
Everything started to look trivial now.
She became the continent's strongest being.
Ferda and Erica who blocked her are just dust destined to become nothing in the flow of time.
Erdes raised her index finger.
As if feeling no emotion for such things, she said.
She was creating high-mana high-concentration magic that could blow away a whole country as if it were nothing.
That was when.
"Society President!!"
At that voice, Erdes's magic cut off.
The threatening blue pillar also disappeared, and everything stopped.
What stopped her wasn't the slippery Ferda, nor the cheeky Erica.
Her noisy vision became clearer and clearer.
As that shape became visible, the surroundings also began to show clearly.
Reason was returning.
-...Lu-gun?
Erdes thought.
Why is that child here?