Side Story (8)

Several years had passed since Henry had emotionally retired. He was still the master of the Magical Spire, but he handled only the bare minimum of tasks.

In the meantime, Silver had matured from a boy into a healthy young man. Ronan and Hein had also become adults, being well over twenty.

And as for Howl...

“Master, I’m here.”

“Is that you, Howl?”

The two were in a place where warm sunlight shone constantly and waves regularly rolled in. They were talking in the hidden laboratory of the Magical Spire.

Howl had grown into a handsome, tall boy, almost as tall as Henry. Moreover, he had become the spire’s chief wizard at the young age of sixteen. He had grown at an incredibly fast rate. Besides being the youngest chief wizard at the Magical Spire, he was also a respected figure in Shahatra.

Despite being allowed to have a personal assistant, Howl chose against it. Instead, he decided to be someone’s assistant once again.

And that someone was none other than Henry.

Henry wasn’t against this idea, but one of his conditions to become his official assistant, who would help him with his research, was that they had to be at least 6th-Circle; in other words, he only accepted Archmages as assistants. He considered that the minimum requirement for one to be able to keep up with his research and fully support him.

But despite this condition, Henry didn’t refuse Howl, one reason being that he was a Morris child. More importantly, Henry didn’t want to leave the young wizard, who was one of the best talents within the spire, without guidance and support.

‘He can start his own growth once he’s a mage.’

Howl had just returned with the payment documents Henry had requested.

But then...

- Geruuuu!

A mysterious being howled by expanding its mouth as much as it could. It then flew high in the sky.

“Woah...”

It resembled a dragon from an Eastern legend, its skin appearing to be made of glass shards. It was a stunning creature, and Howl was genuinely amazed by its mysterious beauty. He assumed it was one of Henry’s works and gazed at it in awe while hugging the stack of documents.

But as he kept looking at it, he noticed something strange.

‘It doesn’t have a shadow?’

Although its body was translucent, the creature was big enough that it had to have a shadow. And the fact that it seemed to be made out of glass didn’t justify this phenomenon either.

Howl was close enough to the creature, so he was sure he would’ve seen its shadow if it had one.

“Master, why doesn’t that creature have a shadow?” Howl asked in a confused tone.

“Who? That one?”

“Yes.”

“Because I got rid of it.”Reêad latest novels at novelhall.com

“Sorry? You got rid of its shadow?”

“That creature’s just something I’ve wanted to make for a long time. I was curious about whether it’d be possible to create a shadowless being. And as you can see, I’ve succeeded. Strictly speaking, that fellow is an alchemic being. That’s why I was able to remove its shadow.”

“Oh, I see. An alchemic being, huh...”

“Well, it might seem like it’s pretty rubbish, but if war were to break out, it would make for a formidable assassin. You’d be surprised how many assassins die because their shadows get revealed.”

“What’s the creature’s name?”

"Name? I haven’t really thought about that. How about you give it a name?”

“Y-you want me to give it a name?”

“What’s with this reaction?” Henry asked as though he didn’t think it was that big of a deal. “It’s just a name. What’s important is the process and motivation behind its conception. It doesn’t matter who gives it a name.”

As Henry spoke, his eyes were glued to the spell book he had been reading before Howl’s arrival.

“Woah...!” Howl was once again impressed, finding Henry’s indifferent demeanor cool.

However, Henry was just being honest. In fact, removing a creature’s shadow through magical processing was an extremely complex and difficult task. It was a challenge even for an 8th-Circle Archmage.

Henry had taken up this challenge simply out of curiosity, but it eventually became clear that he really needed to dedicate himself to this undertaking and make innovative discoveries. For him, the advancement of magic was everything.

“Well, this is just my personal opinion. In any case, I really think he’s going to retire in a few years,” added Howl.

“You mean completely?”

“Yes. He’s kept on reducing his workload over time, and now he’s reached a point where he doesn’t even want to see any of it.”

“...I see."

Henry’s complete retirement was both good and sad news. The good part was that Henry could finally rest after a lifetime of dedication to his work. However, it was concerning because Henry had always been extremely meticulous, looking at the smallest of details for the empire to be as prosperous as it could be.

Despite that, Henry had recently expressed his desire to steer away even from minor tasks like having a final say in regard to a decision. On this note, Dracan was concerned that Henry might become too absorbed in his research, to the point of losing touch with reality.

Dracan shook his head.

‘No... No negative thoughts, Dracan.’

Dracan trusted that Henry wouldn’t let himself go down that path. He would have faith in him. After all, Henry was not only the greatest wizard on the continent but also the most admirable person he knew in this world.

***

A few more years had passed.

“What? I can’t believe this...!” Henry muttered as he threw himself on the bed in his lab, a wave of hopelessness washing over him.

His lab was cleaner than ever, which was why he was disappointed. It used to be filled with notes he had written out of curiosity that floated in the air like ornaments. At one point, he had nine hundred and ninety-nine notes.

But even after completing his final research project and recording all the knowledge he had discovered, Henry still hadn’t reached the 9th-Circle.

He was despondent. His head throbbed, his anger flared, and a sense of despair engulfed him. This indescribable feeling seemed to swallow him whole.

Yet, despite being overwhelmed by those emotions, there was still one question still lingering in one part of his mind.

‘Why?'

Henry didn’t understand why he couldn’t achieve the enlightenment he was expecting. Among the discoveries he had made over the years, there were some pieces of knowledge that he believed to be truly enlightening.

But in the end, those were nothing more than just simple realizations that deserved no more than simple exclamations. Thus, whenever he discovered something new these days, Henry would just exclaim lightly before resuming his research.

He had been doing this over and over again until this day. All in all, he had been unable to achieve his goal. He had only succeeded in failure.

“How... Why...?!”

He felt like he was about to cry. At least that was what his mind felt, for his tear ducts had dried up from all the constant reading he had done over the past year.

At this, Henry buried his face in his pillow. Truth be told, he knew he could continue his research if he wanted to. All he needed to do was combine the knowledge he had already established and refine it into something better or transform it into something entirely new.

However, he decided against it because deep down, he knew it wouldn’t yield any results. Moreover, the biggest problem with all these studies was that...

“They’re too damn easy!!”

Henry had succeeded in all of his research projects over the years without facing significant difficulties. Everything seemed too easy, even when he dealt with subjects he was completely unfamiliar with. That was why he didn’t want to uselessly put effort into combining or refining the knowledge he had accumulated.

But as he lay in his bed, Henry remembered a subject he had treated like a taboo. He had tried to erase it from his memory, sealing it deep within his mind. But as soon as he thought about it again, he buried his head once more.

“I can’t do that! If I touch that kind of knowledge, I’ll probably...!”

Dimensional power—Henry had deliberately torn the note about it on the first day in his new lab.

In his previous life, he had achieved the 9th-Circle with astonishing ease thanks to the knowledge derived from dimensional power. However, he had forcefully sealed it away somewhere deep in his mind this time, determined not to rely on this knowledge.

Henry had thought he would reach enlightenment through the research he had postponed for years, but now he was done with everything, and he was still stuck at the 8th-Circle. This taboo was his last option.

Henry’s memory was still as sharp as ever, so he remembered everything about the dimensional power he had acquired many years ago.

However, he had refrained from fully engaging with that knowledge because he was afraid; he feared the implications of using it. But now, it seemed like he had no other choice, and so he was conflicted.

It felt like he was opening Pandora’s box. He ended up pondering on this option for more than half a day.

In the end, Henry made a decision.

“Alright...! Let’s just get a little, just a tiny bit of help. Just enough to get a feel for it...!”

Henry continued to trail off as he tried to convince himself of this approach.