Noble Lady Reformation Guide - Chapter 212

The traces of death covering Count Elvester's manor slowly began to fade.

The few remaining corpses crumbled to dust, and the Bone Dragon that had collapsed an entire wing of the estate roared one last time before returning to nothingness.

The soldiers subduing the remaining forces all dropped their swords, silently watching as the restless spirits blotting the sky disappeared one by one.

Though it had been a terrifying magic that plunged many into horror, there was a strange beauty in how it faded away amidst the light.

"It's finally over."

Kalimford, who had been suppressing the Bone Dragon, sat quietly on the rubble before the collapsed wing, gazing up at the starry sky above the main manor.

His fingertips were turning to ash. Watching his form slowly disappear, Kalimford instinctively knew Phee had been completely subdued.

Which meant his own end had come as well.

Having already experienced death once before, no emotional turmoil overcame him. To him, this life had been more like a mercy granted by the heavens.

His true life had ended when he slew Noir.

Having seen Sirine growing up well and confirmed Melberot was living healthily, that was enough.

In the gently blowing mountain breeze, the Grand Mage of legend slowly closed his eyes.

In a corner tent of the encampment.

Melberot, lying bandaged from head to toe with fatal wounds, suddenly let out a dry chuckle with his forearm covering his eyes.

Gazing up at the brightening dawn sky, he muttered to himself in his usual dry tone. Just a brief farewell - it's been a while, take care, that sort of thing.

A star was setting.

In a private room at Amarilis House of Ravenclaw Academy, Sirine sat alone reading miscellaneous novels borrowed from Lady Denise, her expression blank as she looked out the window.

Someone had come and gone. To her, it likely held no special meaning.

Life was just a cycle of meetings and partings - to her, it was simply that kind of matter.

As if a brilliant curtain had fallen on someone's life, while others continued their long journeys onward.

And so, the era of the living continued.

Princess Rozelyn, who had been observing the situation from the city walls, rushed down the outer stairs to announce the victory to the soldiers. Cheers spread, and many shed tears of joy at having survived.

Amidst the celebration, the image of Princess Rozelyn - of the noblest blood yet commanding from the most dangerous frontlines - remained in their hearts like a legend.

Countess Rodea stood at the battlefield's center listening to the soldiers'cheers while quietly looking down at the corpse of Border Count Elvester.

Even amidst victory's joy, she didn't forget to pay respects to the old noble who had governed these lands. After gently closing his eyes, the heavily armored countess pulled herself onto her horse.

At the edge of a large hill near Elvester's territory.

An old ghost hidden in night's darkness nodded slowly while observing the battlefield below.

Drest turned with a flourish of his robes, disappearing once more into history's back alleys.

Vice Commander Luthein shared embraces with the soldiers, while other survivors cheered the name of the hero who had finally struck down the enemy commander in this hellscape.

Baron Derek Raidof Ravenclaw.

The monster who had subdued two 6-Star mages, who delivered the final blow to the legendary horror Pine Rafaela Tigris... this battlefield's hero.

Kochella barely managed to rise, her fingers trembling violently.

She had to mentally replay what she'd just witnessed.

Derek had broken through to 5-Star rank in the moment he struck down Phee, the supreme necromancer who commanded spirits across the sky and corpses across the land.

Had it ended there, she might have simply been impressed. Few mages in history had reached such heights at his age.

But the magic Derek wielded was no ordinary 5-Star spell.

No matter which of the six magic systems established by Grand Mage Adelbert she examined, she couldn't classify the hierarchy of magic Derek had just displayed.

'Combat...? Confusion...? Detection...? No... That young man just... touched upon a seventh system never before recorded in magical history.'

A power that reversed all things, returning them to a state before they existed.

As someone who had studied magic more fervently than anyone, Kochella instantly grasped its nature.

'Time.'

Time magic.

The seventh system Adelbert had buried in darkness - magic that overturned causality itself, reaching into the essence of existence.

Realizing this, overwhelming passion surged through Kochella.

The divine realm none in human history had reached. The final key needed to attain the 7-Star rank.

Combat, confusion, transformation, summoning, detection, necromancy... and now, that final domain had appeared before her eyes.

After long years devoted solely to magic, tremendous joy and ecstasy unlike anything she'd ever known coursed through her.

She had found the key to reaching 7-Star.

That single truth alone set her mind reeling.

"De..."

Though she tried calling out to Derek as she struggled to rise, her body swayed unsteadily again. After using the most mana-intensive 6-Star transformation magic to create a sacred relic and receiving fatal wounds from Phee, it was miraculous she wasn't dead already.

For all her passion for magic, Kochella needed to tend to her overloaded body now.

The structure of the magic Derek had manifested.

How he'd achieved it in this situation.

How he'd known the 6-Star necromancer.

Countless questions piled up, but blood loss made Kochella's vision blur and mind hazy.

Meanwhile, in the ruined Elvester manor.

Phee's limp body clung to Derek's shoulders.

Dripping blood, the faint pulse within that flow.

Though still breathing, that faint rhythm would clearly end soon.

Embracing Derek's head tightly, Phee whispered something as she closed her eyes for the last time.

Though Derek was also severely wounded, his eyes twitched upon hearing her final words.

As if she'd had something important to tell him.

After her murmuring continued for some time, Phee finally released her grip.

Her limp arm dropped onto Derek's lap.

Her lavender hair draped warmly over Derek's neck as her life ended with a faint smile.

"......."

Derek quietly raised his head.

His limbs barely responded. Still gritting his teeth, he forced himself up.

Using his body as support, he lifted Phee's corpse.

Though she'd been the supreme necromancer commanding the world, her body was light as a feather. So petite her forehead would reach Derek's chest if they stood side by side.

Limping, Derek carried her body to the large throne where she'd waited for him, gently laying her down.

Dawn broke.

As the long night ended and light rose, news of victory spread among the soldiers, their cheers reaching the manor ruins.

There, bathed in dawn's light, Derek quietly observed Phee's body lying as if asleep.

The peaceful, satisfied smile she'd worn at life's end remained, making her seem merely deep in rest.

Derek closed his eyes before her.

He'd suspected something from the start. There had to be reasons behind her destructive path.

Considering her eccentric, radical nature, the answer had likely been obvious long ago.

In her mind, the fastest way to elevate Derek to greater heights was to make him walk the line between life and death.

Derek's magical breakthroughs usually came in such moments. Remembering how she'd recklessly made him fight the Grand Duke of Beltus showed her typical approach.

But for Derek who'd already reached such heights, life-and-death crises were distant memories.

To push him further would require battle with a 6-Star mage.

How to arrange such a fight when 6-Star mages were vanishingly rare, most having connections to Derek that made opposing them unwise?

Then having the universally hated necromancer step forward solved everything.

It likely hadn't taken her long to reach that conclusion.

Because that was simply the kind of person Phee was.

"...Rest well, Master."

Derek bowed his head to the seemingly sleeping Phee before turning away on trembling legs.

Staggering beneath the pouring dawn light.

- Tap, thud!

"This way! Quickly, over here!"

"There he is! It's Lord Ravenclaw! He's badly injured!"

Soldiers rushed up shouting as they came to rescue Kochella and Derek.

Slowly, Derek's vision wavered.

Later, soldiers would remember this scene as the moment the hero arrived.

The long night ending, dawn's light pouring over the ruined Elvester territory.

Derek slowly descending from the hilltop manor ruins with soldiers'support - unmistakably the image of a hero who had slain the enemy commander in this hellish battlefield.

Step by painful step, receiving salutes from awestruck soldiers as he made his way down.

Finally becoming the hero, with no obstacles remaining on his path to magic's final realm.

This too, had likely been Phee's arrangement.

- Tap, tap.

Step by step.

Descending the broken wooden stairs, Derek quietly closed his eyes.

Left behind him was Phee's body.

Before it cooled, her final embrace around his shoulders, the benevolent smile as she whispered - the memories surfaced.

-'Derek, you'll definitely become a star someday.'

Her drowsy murmurs carried deep emotion in every word.

-'You may not know, but you appeared right before my life's end and reached out. You gave me life, and now you'll give me rest. You were there at both the beginning and end of my life.'

-'So Derek, my most beloved mentor and disciple... my life's start and end...'

Her fading pulse's final whisper lingered in Derek's ears.

-'See you again.'

See you again.

The message left by the girl at death's precipice he'd visited so often.

Indeed. To her, death was no final rest.

Derek looked up at the brightening dawn sky.

Blessed with heavenly magical talent, he'd walked his path as a mage.

As no one walks alone, many mentors had come and gone in Derek's arduous journey.

To reach 1-Star, a boastful old man in the slums had taught him.

To reach 2-Star, a fallen noble took pity on him.

To reach 3-Star, a detection mage who'd transcended life's turbulence assisted him.

Then beyond 4-Star to 5-Star's realm.

At this height revered across the continent, only the highest humanly attainable 6-Star remained.

No teacher exists for 6-Star magic. That was a realm one had to reach alone.

Lady Phee Rafaela Tigris.

She had been the final mentor in Derek's life.

"See you again, huh..."

Derek murmured with difficulty.

He imagined that girl suddenly appearing someday, arms crossed with her arrogant smile.

What form would she take when she came without warning, saying whatever she pleased as usual?

At this point... it was only natural he couldn't know.

Such was the way of the world.