TLed by NolepGuy
Chapter 59
Agatha stormed out of the room, and a few minutes later.
A maid who had been hiding at the end of the hallway suddenly appeared.
Dressed in a typical maid outfit of a black dress with white frills, it was none other than Lirina.
However, Lirina wasn’t alone today.
Because there was a crow perched on her shoulder.
“Crim, it seems like no one’s around, right?”
When Lirina asked, the crow lightly nodded its head.
Seeing that, Lirina let out a breath and quickly started running down the hallway.
Everyone was currently flocking to the commotion caused by Aslan’s self-immolation.
Now, when no one was around, was the only chance.
Thanks to Agatha storming out without even closing the door, she could easily enter her room.
As soon as she stepped into the room, what caught her eye were the books filling the space.
The shelves, packed tightly with books, were all related to magic, and among them were several books explaining innate human abilities.
The room, reflecting Agatha’s passion, also had some scattered documents on the desk.
Among them, there was an old photo of three family members taken happily.
A picture from when Aslan was very young, where his father and Agatha were hugging him.
Lirina gazed at the photo with pity before turning her head away.
She hurriedly began searching through the room.
The most noticeable thing was, of course, the drawers.
“…It’s not here.”
First, she opened all the unlocked drawers.
As expected, Dorothy’s crystal, which Kraush had mentioned, wasn’t in any of the drawers that opened.
A crystal left behind when a spirit dies.
It’s a crystal that spirits leave to pass on their memories and experiences to future spirits.
The reason Kraush had been able to glimpse into her memories when he absorbed the World Erosion within the Chaos Spirit’s core was because of this.
In Kraush’s case, since he preserved the core instead of destroying it to kill the spirit, no crystal was left behind.
However, since Dorothy’s core had burned and shattered, such a crystal had remained.
Lirina had come to find that crystal.
“What’s left is.”
Lirina’s eyes landed on a drawer.
A locked drawer secured with a padlock.
It was undoubtedly a drawer containing important documents.
The problem was that the lock on the drawer seemed to be enchanted with magic.
Lirina was an ordinary person.
She had seen mages use magic but didn’t know how to use it herself.
Not knowing what to do, she anxiously stomped her feet.
At that moment, the crow on Lirina’s shoulder lightly hopped down.
“Crim?”
When Lirina called the crow’s name, it was already in front of the padlock.
Then, with two taps of its beak, the padlock clicked and fell off.
Lirina stared at it with wide eyes.
She hadn’t known Crim had such a skill.
Now she understood why Kraush had told her to take Crim along.
But there was no time to dwell on that.
Agatha could return at any moment.
She quickly opened the drawer.
“Found it!”
And she immediately let out a cheer.
Inside the drawer lay a bright blue crystal.
She hurriedly stuffed the crystal into her pocket.
Now, all that was left was to leave.
So, she quickly locked the padlock back in place and stepped outside.
At that very moment.
Whoosh!
Suddenly, a flame pillar shot up outside the window.
Startled by the sight, Lirina flinched and turned her head.
Then her face began to turn pale.
“…This is bad.”
She quickly started running down the hallway.
It was because she had realized whose magic had caused the flame pillar just now.
And she also understood that the location of the flame pillar was where Aslan had been.
It was certain.
The Red Magic Tower Lord.
The Flame King.
Adolf Igrit.
He had undoubtedly returned.
When Aslan had staged the self-immolation incident.
Adolf had been away from the family for a few months due to some business.
Because of that, the news about Aslan hadn’t yet reached Adolf’s ears.
However, just as he returned using Space Magic.
The news of Aslan’s self-immolation had reached him.
The timing couldn’t have been worse.
‘If he finds out that Lord Aslan attempted suicide, he’ll never let it slide.’
He might even expel Aslan from the Igrit Family, calling it a disgrace to their family.
With growing anxiety, she dashed across the hallway.
After running for a long while, her steps finally brought her to the hall where Aslan had been staying.
There, the servants were moving hurriedly with pale faces.
Their expressions unmistakably resembled that of people avoiding something they shouldn’t have seen.
Lirina’s heart sank.
Their reaction meant that they were avoiding witnessing the Igrit Family’s grave matter.
She hastily passed through the servants and entered the hall.
The moment she stepped into the training ground where mages practiced their magic.
She felt a wave of intense heat on her face.
“Lord Aslan!”
And she involuntarily screamed.
Within a burning flame sphere, Aslan was trapped, clutching his neck in agony.
In front of him stood an old man.
Though advanced in age, his fiery red hair.
His face covered with a full red beard and sharp, menacing eyes.
And his large build, unbefitting of a mage, marked him as none other than the Flame King, Adolf Igrit.
He was glaring at Aslan with a furious expression.
“How dare you commit such a shameful act while I was away?”
“Father! Please, stop, stop this!”
Agatha, who had rushed forward in desperation, was shouting with a pained expression.
Because Aslan, trapped within the flame sphere, was suffocating from lack of oxygen in real time.
At this rate, Aslan would die.
Unable to bear the sight, Agatha pleaded, and Adolf let out a hollow sound.
Slap!
In that moment, Agatha’s head snapped to the side harshly.
Struck by Adolf, Agatha froze in place, while Adolf glared at her with a furious expression.
“Didn’t I tell you this already? That brat isn’t even fit to be a Magic Tower dog! A direct descendant of the Igrit Family, causing a suicide commotion? Not just once or twice, but multiple times!”
His eyes were boiling with intense rage.
“And you, as his mother, failing to manage your own son, are a problem too. What have you even done as the Vice Matriarch?”
Adolf’s furious shout thundered throughout the Training Ground.
It was clear now why the servants had fled the area.
They couldn’t afford to overhear the disgraceful secrets of the Igrit Family.
Agatha couldn’t lift her turned head.
Though it was her father’s words, they were shameful and humiliating. Yet, she had lived her entire life as a daughter of the Igrit Family.
Even as the Vice Matriarch, the wall that was her father remained insurmountably high and terrifying.
In the Igrit Family, his words were absolute law.
“Ha, haha.”
At that moment, a sudden laugh echoed from within the Flame Sphere.
Both Adolf, whose face was twisted with rage, and Agatha, who had collapsed, began to slowly turn their gazes toward the Sphere.
What reflected in their eyes was none other than Aslan.
For some reason, Aslan was laughing.
The moment Adolf’s face contorted at the sight of that laugh.
“No matter how much effort I put in, you never once acknowledged me, and now that I’m like this, you finally do.”
Struggling to breathe, Aslan clutched his throat as he forced out his words.
“Do you know what that means? Whether you find me shameful or not, I am a direct descendant of the Igrit Family, and everything I do becomes the actions of an Igrit Family descendant.”
He said this, letting out a bitter chuckle.
That laughter was unmistakably scornful.
“Your so-called proud Igrit name will shine as long as the Patriarch is alive. But do you think it will remain the same after that?”
At the same time, a fierce, venomous glint appeared in Aslan’s eyes.
“Do you really think I’ll let it be?”
The venom dripping from his eyes was a manifestation of deep-seated hatred.
From the moment he was born with Lunar Body, he had been shunned by the family.
His mother, who had always shown him love and warmth, had turned into someone ruthless enough to kill her child’s precious friend with her own hands.
And the root cause of all of it was none other than the Flame Mistress standing before him.
No one understood this better than Aslan—that it was all because of Adolf Igrit.
Agatha stared blankly at the scene.
She knew just how profound the resentment dwelling within her son was.
And she understood all too well that she was not entirely blameless in that resentment.
‘It’s all wrong.’
Everything had gone terribly wrong.
To that child, the Igrit Family held no value whatsoever.
All he needed was just one person to stand by him.
Tears streamed down her face as she realized she had destroyed her son with her own hands in the name of passing down the family.
She finally came to terms with the fact that, in the end, she had been no different from Adolf, forcing her will upon her son.
“You wretched…”
Adolf’s eyes trembled violently as he took in the sight.
Unable to contain his fury, he slowly began to raise his hand.
“Fine, if that’s what you want, I’ll grant it.”
Agatha’s arm shot out belatedly as she realized the meaning behind his words.
Adolf intended to kill Aslan on the spot.
“No!”
At the very moment Agatha’s scream tore through the air, magic erupted from her hands.
“Caw!”
A crow soared into the sky.
In the instant its feathers scattered.
The crow transformed into a boy who, in the blink of an eye, brought his sword down upon the Flame Sphere.
Whoosh!
With the explosion of black flames from the sword, Adolf’s Flame Sphere was split cleanly in half.
In the instant of this sudden turn of events, Adolf’s eyes widened in shock.
A hand reached out from behind the shattered sphere, grabbing Aslan’s clothes tightly.
What emerged from the flames was none other than a boy with jet-black hair.
For a fleeting moment, even Adolf was caught off guard by the boy’s appearance, his sword sheathed in blue flames.
The boy, carrying Aslan, leapt away without hesitation.
“That brat!”
Watching the boy take Aslan away right before his eyes, Adolf belatedly grasped the situation and turned his hand.
But what blocked his path was none other than Agatha.
Seeing Agatha standing firm, magic shimmering in both her hands as she glared at him, Adolf’s expression turned incredulous.
“Vice Matriarch, have you lost your mind?”
“…My son is struggling just to survive.”
Aslan’s desperate, anguished words had carved themselves deeply into Agatha’s heart.
She no longer wanted Aslan to live in torment.
“No one in the world will condemn me for stopping someone who is trying to kill my son.”
Agatha showed no intention of backing down.
She might have been a whole class below the Flame King, but as a mother, she had no intention of retreating.
“…Very well.”
Adolf, watching her, ignited flames in his hands.
“Perhaps if I knock some sense into the both of you, you’ll finally come to your senses.”
And with that, two flames erupted within the Training Ground.