Chapter 366

Chapter 366

Roan had intended from the very beginning to lay flat and obey named figures of their level, so it was not something that hurt his pride much.

Meanwhile, Harden, having laughed to his heart’s content, brought up the main topic.

“Anyway, you must have had a dream.”

His eyes were as sharp as the atmosphere was serious.

Roan also had no choice but to settle his expression.

“As expected, you are clairvoyant.”

Harden pondered for a moment whether this cheeky student was being genuinely cheeky or expressing sincere admiration.

Though that was not important right now.

“Right, what kind of dream was it?”

“Well… I saw things from the past.”

[The past? Then, was it the Holy Emperor’s Palace?]

At Diar’s question, Harden nodded as if in agreement.

Roan had lived in the Holy Emperor’s Palace ever since his family was destroyed.

But naturally, there was no way his life in the Holy Emperor’s Palace had anything so meaningful.

Since even when Harden occasionally heard about Roan’s childhood, he was only described as an inconspicuous and quiet young master.

‘Still, since there was Lord Hiloa’s holy light…’

He merely thought it must have some meaning since it was related to Hiloa.

Even as great as they were, they did not think that the past Roan spoke of was from even before then.

Roan calmly shook his head.

“No.”

“Then?”

“It was… the time of the Darc family’s destruction.”

“”???””

However, the reactions of Harden and Diar upon hearing those words were quite different from what Roan had expected.

He had expected them to be shocked or quickly ask what happened when he mentioned the destruction of the Darc family.

Instead, they were first and foremost bewildered, as if wondering why that story was suddenly being brought up.

As Roan tilted his head slightly, Harden asked reluctantly.

“Well… it does sound like an important story, but how old were you back then?”

Harden had a look on his face that made it seem as though, having lived for five thousand years, he had failed to consider a minor discrepancy of about five years.

Roan answered casually.

“I was newly born, of course.”

Harden and Diar looked at each other once again.

The expressions of the two were similar.

One might wonder how a book like Diar could have an expression, but after looking at him for five thousand years, it was possible to feel subtle emotional changes even from the cover.

In the end, Diar could not hold back and asked.

[Isn’t that just a nonsense dream?]

Usually, for a dream to have meaning, it had to foretell the future, or reveal a part of one’s past that was significant but had been passed over without notice.

However, a dream from infancy would have hazy memories, and there was absolutely no way to verify if it was true.

Roan did not know this would happen, but he decided to use the words he had learned from Ludiac.

“Uh? Isn’t that blasphemy, Professor?”

[……]

Diar was speechless and merely fluttered his pages for a moment.

He had spoken without thinking, but looking back, it did feel like blasphemy, just as Roan said.

[Ahem… Well, it just means it is that surprising.]

In the end, Diar had no choice but to take a step back.

Harden looked at that sight in disbelief.

[Good grief, a black mage talks about blasphemy to the diary of a god? If we go by that, you yourself are blasphemy incarnate, you rascal!]

Although he used the Gospel to maintain security, the emotion behind it was conveyed all the more clearly.

Up to this point, it was half a joke.

“However, the content of the dream…”

“Right, let us hear it first.”

Roan explained most of the scenes he had witnessed in the dream.

“Thus, it seems that there was an attack by demon kings and a large number of black mages at the time. However, it does not appear that the Darc family attempted to block that plan in advance.”

However, he hid the fact that the previous Darc, Delion, was a black mage who possessed a false divinity, just like himself.

Not only was there no benefit in bringing it up, but he also had things he needed to verify later.

“Hmm, it certainly seems that way. And the details seem to match roughly.”

[Those Darc fools, doing such a foolish thing…]

Harden and Diar each showed a solemn reaction.

No matter how quietly they lived at the academy, detached from the secular world, they were still beings who had made great contributions to the Empire.

Moreover, having existed for a long time, they must have had deep ties with the Darc family, so hearing the story of its destruction could only leave them feeling complicated.

Roan also asked with a serious expression.

“Do you happen to know anything more related to this, or is there anything you can tell me?”

“Hmm…”

[That is…]

Harden and Diar hesitated for a moment as if there really was something, and then.

“We don’t know anything either.”

[We really don’t know a thing.]

“……?”

They shook their heads, taking the wind out of his sails.

Roan stared at the holy spirit and the diary with a cold, deadpan face.

If they were going to do that, they should have just said they didn’t know from the start.

Seeing Roan like that, Harden flew into a rage.

“Hey! You rascal! We are strictly bound to this place. Your circumstances are unfortunate, but even if such an urgent matter occurs, it means we cannot just leave our posts so carelessly.”

“You are right.”

Roan meekly nodded.

For Harden to step outside the academy, he had to make arrangements in advance, just like how he had placed a blessing (?) on Roan last time.

Or prepare for a very long time.

Thus, it was difficult to respond to something sudden and instantaneous, like the tragedy of the Darc family.

Diar’s situation was better than that, but it was practically the same.

Had the Darc family requested support early, it might have been different, but since the circumstances suggested they had hidden it on purpose, there was nothing those two could do.

And if responsibility had to be assigned, the Holy Emperor’s Palace or the Vatican would be more appropriate than the academy.

Harden smacked his lips in regret and said.

“Tsk. Besides, those Darc fellows were such monstrous guys… Who would have thought they would be destroyed overnight like that?”

[That is true. Honestly, even I was shocked to hear it.]

Roan asked in an absurd tone.

“Even though four demon kings were summoned?”

“It wasn’t four demon kings, though?”

Then, Harden asked back in an even more absurd tone.

“Oho, you really know even less than we do, don’t you?”

‘You said you didn’t know anything either in the first place…’

Roan’s expression crumpled slightly, but it was always the thirsty person who dug the well.

“…But what I felt in the dream was definitely four.”

“Well, it is certain that four came first, and then three more came after, right? It seems you only saw up to the first part.”

[Yes, it is written that way in my diary as well.]

“…A diary writes a diary?”

[Is there a problem?]

Harden and Diar engaged in a light banter over the monumental topic before turning back to Roan.

“Yes, in any case, it wasn’t four, but seven. That was revealed during the investigation later.”

[Tsk. If only they hadn’t sent people away… I didn’t think they would collapse to that extent.]

“……”

Roan was left speechless.

‘What in the world…’

Roan could not properly grasp just how powerful the Darc family had been.

Normally, if four demon kings attacked a family, one would say, ‘It is a relief they only ended up destroyed,’ rather than, ‘They were destroyed overnight just from that?’

On top of that, it turned out it wasn’t even four, but three more were added, making it seven.

Harden tilted his head.

“Did you not know? The Darc family hunted down and killed all seven of those demon kings. No, to be precise, that fellow Delion hunted and killed six of them by himself, so it should be viewed as mutual destruction.”

But one person killed six of them?

“……?”

Roan gaped at the absurd story.

‘Just how strong was the previous Darc?’

If Harden spoke of it like that, it was bound to be true.

But six demon kings, the rulers of the demon realm, by himself?

Roan recalled having judged Delion to be a tiger-class named figure of Mount Bidelln.

‘Father, I’m sorry!’

No matter how much of a Mount Bidelln tiger that dominated the continent he was, such an absurd feat was impossible.

[And he even dealt with liches with the strength he had left over.]

And Diar’s comment was added nonchalantly.

For claiming they didn’t know much, the two knew in quite detail.

“Hmm?”

“What is it?”

“Wasn’t the lich captured a few years ago? Professor Kaina did mention she received help from the family… But she didn’t tell me the details of the circumstances.”

He had wondered about it after hearing Kaina’s words last time, but to think even these two would speak this way.

At that, Harden nodded.

“Yes, it was a few years ago. However, they say your father also exterminated the liches running rampant after the demon kings died. What Professor Kaina said probably meant that.”

“Wait, wait.”

“What is it?”

“Did you just say ‘liches’?”

“Yes, they said there were about a hundred liches?”

[Yes, it is recorded that way in my diary too. Though they were described like lackeys brought along by the demon kings from the demon realm.]

“…You write in your diary more diligently than I thought?”

[Because I am a diary.]

Harden stared at Diar with a slightly bewildered look before shrugging his shoulders.

“The one Professor Kaina caught was the last one among them. She tracked down the guy who fled from the Darc territory to the very end. Well… we don’t know the details either.”

Roan was speechless.

“With that level of strength, couldn’t he have avoided dying?”

In Roan’s common sense, no one fought six demon kings and a hundred liches and then spoke of it as having ‘fought with leftover strength’ or ‘a heroic end.’

It had to be viewed as practically jumping into the fiery pits of hell of one’s own accord.

Just what kind of plan did he have that allowed him to rush into such a battle without a single shred of fear?

However, Harden and Diar seemed to understand Roan’s point a bit differently.

“Ah, as we said earlier, it ended in such an instant…”

[Yes, because it took less than two full days for all those battles to end.]

The two took it as him arguing that they could have easily gone to help in a battle of that scale.

It was indeed a question he could raise.

‘Two days…’

However, Roan was even more astonished that such a massive battle had ended in just two days.

Furthermore, he had no intention of picking a fight with Harden and Diar over something that had already passed.

“…I see.”

Roan calmly organized his thoughts and nodded.

The end of the Darc family, which was massive beyond imagination.

Yet, there was still one thing he could not understand.

‘Father, why on earth did you live like that!’

If he could take down six demon kings in mutual destruction and slaughter a hundred liches, why did he live quietly as the head of the Darc family?

He should have started a revolution in the Empire long ago and issued an amnesty for black mages!

And as his thoughts reached this point, a sudden anxiety surged.

‘And a person like that is angry at me…?’

Charlotte’s words that he had heard twice in the dream.

He felt like he had truly poked a hornet’s nest!

Perhaps the saying that clearing Roan Darc was extremely difficult meant that surviving Delion was just that…

‘No, a dead person is still dead even in God and Devil. Unless he somehow resurrects as a holy spirit, which is impossible for a black mage.’

In any case, putting that aside.

Roan asked after calming his shock.

“My father… also said that he had to squeeze out the pus for the balance of the current world. Do you have any idea about this as well?”

“Oh, absolutely none.”

[Indeed.]

Harden and Diar replied as if he was asking something obvious.

However, after a moment’s thought, they added this.

“Now that I think about it, there was something unusual.”

“What kind of…?”

“The admissions officer dispatched to the Darc family returned a few days prior to that. They said the family had sent away all outsiders due to their circumstances.”

[Ah, I remember. Yes, it seems the Darc family definitely knew about the attack.]

“Well, it could have been a coincidence, or maybe those black mage bastards found out and launched a surprise attack, but that is how it was for now. That is also why the Empire could not provide support.”

Roan nodded.

His puzzle was still coming together in his head.

It could certainly be called a convenient coincidence, but the man named Delion whom Roan had seen left him with certainty.

‘If so, it seems he was drawing a big picture… but I have no idea what he was aiming for.’

Although incomprehensible, Delion was clearly plotting something grand enough to sacrifice the entire family.

While Roan was diligently piling deduction upon deduction.

Spark—

Harden sparked holy power in front of Roan’s eyes.

“Ugh.”

As Roan groaned at the stinging sensation, Harden spoke.

“If a young fellow starts worrying already, his hair will turn completely white.”

“It’s already ash-colored…”

“Talking back again, talk back!”

“…Thank you for your concern.”

“Focus on the reconstruction, just as you always say. Don’t waste your energy on the past that has already gone. Is the preparation for the inheritance this weekend going well?”

“Yes.”

Since he had already received the certificate of inheritance, there was nothing in particular for Roan to prepare.

Harden was likely just referring to mental preparation.

‘Of course, I’ll have to get something on the way, though.’

…And it went without saying, but Roan had absolutely no intention of just swallowing the inheritance and returning.

Opportunities to go out were rare, so once he went, he had to make the most of it.

And if things went well, he would be able to move in and out of the academy relatively freely in the future.

Harden, having noticed that Roan was up to something again, clicked his tongue.

[Tsk, tsk. Such a sly rascal… Well, that is probably why you engraved a black mark that is exactly like you.]

Still, Harden always made sure to use the Gospel when speaking about Roan’s identity.

“Our talk should be all finished now, right? If your body feels fine, go attend your next class. There is still some time left.”

“Yes, Principal. Ah, and may I ask one more thing?”

“What?”

“By any chance, did my father not study at Acherandir?”

“Hmm?”

At Roan’s question, Harden looked back and forth between him and Diar.

Diar also fluttered his pages, turning alternately toward Roan and Harden.

“Now that you mention it?”

[I’ve never seen him?]

“No, not just because it is my family, but how could you not know if such an important person attended…?”

Roan was so flabbergasted that he asked this.

He was the head of one of the four great families, yet they didn’t even know that?

Harden also burst into laughter, perhaps feeling a bit awkward, and said.

“You rascal, do you think only one or two people from the four great families have been through Acherandir? If we lined up only those who became family heads, the queue would stretch from here to the academy gates. In fact, I don’t even know how many kids from my own family have attended.”

[There is one right outside as well.]

That was true.

Since Demona Wicronon was there.

Indeed, since the history of Acherandir spanned about five thousand years, simply becoming the head of one of the four great families would not be considered particularly special.

However, Roan decided to be satisfied with the fact that his guess was correct.

‘As expected, Delion was never caught by anyone.’