Chapter 40: The Original Sin of the Dragon part 2
“Oh, of course. That was the previous Master of the Magic Tower.”
“The previous Master?”
Lucius had no real interest in the Magic Tower. Ever since arriving, he had been too busy regaining his lost magic power and studying the history that had slipped past him. It was the same reason why Neiah, the current Master of the Magic Tower, kept an eye on Lucius yet repeatedly forgot his name.
After all, to Lucius, the Masters of the Magic Tower were nothing more than slightly superior magicians, mere individuals of little consequence. His boundless arrogance blinded him, like sand slipping through clenched fingers, making him overlook the truth.
“Yes. When Fay first arrived at the Magic Tower, she brought his letter of introduction. And then, you know, Drakan. You remember him, right? He left orders for the Magic Tower to take custody of that one as well.”
“…What?”
Lucius was stunned, as if struck by lightning.
Until now, he had merely guessed why Momo, Moitettra Vanus, had ended up in the Magic Tower. It was obvious. Someone must have captured and imprisoned him in Lucius’s absence, and the Tower would have been the perfect place for that.
But to hear that the one who had captured him was none other than a former Master of the Tower, one deeply connected to Fay? That wasn’t something from the distant past? This didn’t make sense. Something was definitely wrong.
“You’ve never heard of this before? You two are always together, yet you barely talk?”
Holtdayne, emboldened by his barely perceptible growth in height, had been gaining confidence bit by bit. He could sense that fate was giving him another chance to reclaim his lost first love before he even had the chance to confess.
Yes, love is won by those who dare to seize it!
But Lucius was too busy bombarding him with questions to care about his taunts.
“Tell me everything you know about this Baroah!”
Holtdayne answered without resistance, and as Lucius pieced together his words with Fay’s mutterings and the remaining fragments of the puzzle, his face turned pale.
A Master of the Magic Tower who existed for exactly one year, vanishing just after the young Fay had suffered misfortune? And he was the one who had left Momo here, instructing the Tower to introduce him to Fay when she arrived? There was no need for further thought!
BANG!!!
Lucius dashed frantically to Baroah’s chamber, which was supposedly still intact. But the moment he entered, his pupils dilated in shock.
An all-too-familiar presence washed over him. The faint traces of magic he had left behind, the whisper of a voice echoing in his mind…
「…The mission is complete.」
At the far end of the room, he saw remnants of something once firmly constructed, now shattered.
Lucius walked forward and picked up a single, broken blue gemstone.
I made this. A contingency. A safeguard for the worst possible outcome. Fay’s growth had made it unnecessary, so it had crumbled away.
There was nothing left to see, but he strode to the desk and picked up a red-covered spellbook. The pages, which no one had been able to open since Baroah’s disappearance, now fluttered effortlessly under his touch.
“…D**n it all.”
Written in an ancient dragon’s hand, the text was incomprehensible by conventional means, boasting a convoluted decryption that only he would have devised.
Lucius’s legs gave out, and he collapsed onto the floor.
“It was me… It was me. I… I! I was the one who did all of this!”
Memories left behind in a forgotten past. They trickled into the mind of the arrogant dragon, one by one.
The enigmatic Master of the Magic Tower, Baroah. His true identity was none other than Lucius’s own astral fragment, created out of necessity before the seal on him was broken.
Before he even knew what would happen, his subconscious had detached itself from the slumbering dragon.
Had Baroah never existed…
Had Baroah never rescued the real princess from the hands of thieves and entrusted her to a monastery…
Then Lady Klein would have fallen victim to misfortune. Her wet nurse and handmaids would have been murdered, and she would have been helplessly dragged beyond the empire’s borders, sold into slavery.
Under the name “Jenna,” she would have lived a miserable existence and died before reaching the age of ten. And when time passed, and the ancient dragon Lucius was finally unsealed…
Before his rationality could return, the instincts of a berserker would have awakened in him.
A mad dragon, acting on impulse, would have hunted down the descendants of Karon, starting with the Duchy of Klein.
The ducal estate would have been only the beginning. The fall of Lapis, the imperial capital, would have been inevitable. No one would have been able to stop Lucius’s rampage after he transformed from an ancient dragon into a calamity-born one.
Not until he had annihilated every last civilization and living creature on Tiselle. Only then would he have finally stopped, but by then, it would have been too late.
Dragons can do anything, except create. Meaning, the world would have ended.
After Lucius himself perished, absolute silence would have remained.
‘I…!’
And so Lucius, or rather, his far-sighted astral fragment, had woven a meticulous plan.
First, he ensured that Lady Klein, with her fragile nature, would experience firsthand how miserable her life would be without her awakening. Then, he orchestrated a scenario where Lucius, faced with a life-threatening crisis, would instinctively rewind time.
And in this second life, the princess would break free from her predetermined fate and carve her own path.
That was the only way. The only way for Fay to live, and for Lucius to survive as well.
By expending immense magical power to cast the time-reversal spell, his frenzied instincts and strength would be significantly weakened. Yet his mind would remain intact.
And the world… would not be destroyed.
……
(T/N: It was Lucius, himself, who made everything possible for Fay 😢)
