Chapter 4 – The Scoundrel is No More (1)

After taking out and reading all the research materials about the magic engineering golem in the drawer,

“Introductory books, introductory books…!”

Unable to accept the bizarre phenomenon of ‘understanding’ the research materials, I searched the bookshelf like a madman. I pulled out a total of thirteen introductory books from where I sat and read through them all at once,

“T-the setting book was real? What kind of nonsense is…”

I could tell that the magic engineering theory setting book published by the game company Snow Storm contained detailed logic and settings that functioned perfectly within a single existing world.

It was a moment where the game and reality aligned perfectly, like the providence of the universe designed by God.

“Creation… this is the domain of God.”

I could be sure of it. This was indeed the domain of God.

In this world, magic engineering was a part of natural phenomena structured without a single error, so how could humans dare to create such a thing?

However.

‘No, Snow Storm isn’t God. Those guys, could they be from this world instead of Earthlings… something like that?’

This side was more rational.

They were probably the ones who possessed me into this world too, but whatever their purpose, if they were such omnipotent gods, they would have resolved it with their own hands instead of using me.

Therefore, it was correct to view this as a domain of knowledge, learning, and experience rather than creation.

It meant some… or all of the employees of Snow Storm might be people of the world.

‘Whatever. What’s important now is how far my understanding goes, not the identity of Snow Storm.’

However, I stopped thinking. Whatever their identity, the urgent matter right now was to survive as Aylen Vale.

I began to pull out and read the textbooks for the next stage of magic engineering, and my relentless ‘understanding’ that flowed like water finally stopped when I reached the tenth volume of the Upper-Intermediate textbooks, which consisted of twenty volumes in total.

“Me… at the level of a magic engineer who has at least entered the Upper-Intermediate level?”

Me, an Upper-Intermediate magic engineer.

No matter how hard I tried to comprehend it, I simply couldn’t make sense of it.

The setting book stated that mastering the textbooks took 5 years for Introductory, 15 years for Novice, 30 years for Intermediate, and 50 years for Upper-Intermediate. Even that was the duration typically taken by geniuses, and average individuals had to spend more time than that.

Yet, how did I, who had only looked at the setting book for 5 years, reach a realm that takes even geniuses 100 years, bypassing a whopping 95 years?

The only possible conclusion was that I was a once-in-a-century genius, or the magic engineering theory published by Snow Storm was a legendary lecture book, like a martial arts manual of a hidden master in a wuxia novel.

“Well… anyway, it means I’m around the level of an Upper-Intermediate magic engineer.”

Whatever the case, it was definitely a good thing. Upper-Intermediate magic engineers were naturally an extreme minority, and according to this world’s logic regarding value, they received hospitable treatment.

Looking at the names written on the report right now, this body’s biological father, Demian Vale, was only listed as an ‘Intermediate Magic Engineer,’ yet didn’t he hold the title of ‘Director of the Magic Engineering Department’?

Rather than the fact that I had the director of the magic engineering department as my backer, the fact that this ember’s director of the magic engineering department was at a lower realm than me struck me more deeply.

Because if things went well, it meant I could become the director of the magic engineering department!

“For that, I need a faction. A reliable faction that will support me…”

Of course, one couldn’t rise to the position with only skill. Above all, since it was a world where politics and faction struggles were primary, it started with earning recognition and respect from the citizens to make them my people.

Only when there was a sufficient support base would force and authority be carried in my voice.

The world was not that simple, and the powerful figures of the city would absolutely not welcome the appearance of a mutant like me.

If so, the very first thing to do…

“I should head to the tavern.”

The place that warmed the air of this dawn when black snow fell and lit up the darkness. The tavern, where one could obtain all kinds of big and small news and sometimes valuable information of the embers, and which became the foundation for securing a support base and playing politics.

However, not only for political purposes, but also because I needed information on what kind of person Aylen Vale was.

“Let’s go. Since they said I’m a scoundrel crazy for alcohol and women, someone will probably strike up a conversation first if I sit there.”

The first place I, reborn as an Upper-Intermediate magic engineer in my father’s study, headed to was the tavern.

There, I…

“That scoundrel fellow has come again already! While his father is sacrificing himself for the embers even at this hour.”

Countless gazes of criticism and blame directed at me.

“Aylen, did something happen to you?”

A friend named ‘Karen’ who sincerely worried about me.

“You’re going to become a magic engineer? What nonsense is this half-witted retard talking about. Do you think you’re the same as us, who are real geniuses about to take the Novice Magic Engineer qualification exam soon?”

And Thomas Wayne and Willus Wayne, who were said to be awaiting the Novice Magic Engineer qualification exam at the young age of nineteen.

Which meant…

“Pfft! Novice… Novice?”

I was able to meet a fresh pair of newbies.

I couldn’t hold back my smile.

* * *

“Hey, be quiet. A fun spectacle has unfolded.”

“Shh!”

The attention of the tavern immediately focused on the meeting between Aylen and the Wayne brothers.

This was because one side was the delinquent legitimate son of Demian Vale, the Director of the Magic Engineering Department responsible for the technology and civilization level of the embers, and the other side was the two sons of Merel Wayne, who had less fame but was a work foreman and a close confidant of the leader.

Perhaps it meant it was no different from a proxy war between the leader and the director of the magic engineering department, a confrontation between minor powerful figures.

In addition, Aylen was a dunce famous for not having a handful of magic engineering talent, and the brothers Thomas and Willus were geniuses walking the elite course. Meaning they were hopes and prospects who would be responsible for the magic engineering department of the embers in the future.

That was precisely why Merel Wayne, who was merely a work foreman, could become a close confidant of the leader Yan Casellos.

But…

“The Novice Magic Engineer qualification exam? Then that means you’re not even magic engineers right now? Are you guys unemployed?”

Aylen was smiling.

He, who did not excel in a single thing among magic engineering skill, political ability, credibility, and reputation, was.

“Has Aylen gone mad at last… What is so funny that he’s laughing like that?”

“He must have lost his mind, or he is bluffing. Since Lord Yan is here too.”

People whispered at his unusual appearance.

If it had been the original Aylen, he would have kicked back his seat and run away, or kept his eyes down and crawled, or humored the Wayne brothers.

“No. Since you are sucking the city’s resources under the pretext of studying magic engineering… should I call you parasites?”

Provoking the Wayne brothers with a very relaxed expression!

Considering that he was sober and completely fine now, it was even harder to believe.

“Did this crazy bastard lose his mind and want to die…!”

Perhaps thinking they were humiliated in front of numerous onlookers and the leader Yan Casellos, the Wayne brothers growled and clenched their fists. They were ready to resort to violence if necessary.

People watched this with interest. Originally, violence was hard to get a good word for, but if the target was Aylen, it was different.

It was no different from public interest in the sense of reforming a hopeless scoundrel to make him a worker contributing to the embers, and since Demian Vale paid no attention to his son at all, there would be no repercussions.

Above all, in this world where death always loomed everywhere, a human who couldn’t do their part was just a leech feeding on other people’s lives.

It was the moment when a round of indiscriminate beating was about to follow.

“These sons of bitches…”

It was Aylen’s voice. At his clear cursing, having never resisted even once, the Wayne brothers and the customers wore expressions as if they were struck in the head with a hammer.

“You bastard, what did you just say…”

“Hmm? I didn’t say anything.”

“Just now, son of a bitch—”

“I said I didn’t say anything.”

Everyone heard it. Yet, when Aylen acted shamelessly, perhaps finding the situation interesting, no one added a word.

Scrape!

Soon, in the silence that had dominated the tavern since some point, Aylen stood up from his seat with the sound of scraping his chair. The sound of the chair legs scraping echoed creepily throughout the tavern.

“By the way… you and I. Weren’t we friends?”

“…What?”

“I’m asking. Weren’t we friends?”

In Aylen’s face and voice as he asked that, no emotion could be felt. Hence, his intention was even colder and sharper, so the Wayne brothers couldn’t answer.

At the same time, there was a fact they newly realized.

‘Was this bastard originally this tall?’

That although Aylen might not have inherited Demian’s intelligence, he had inherited the superior physical genes exactly.

The difference was so overwhelming that they even wondered why they hadn’t felt it until now.

“…”

“…”

In the tension escalating with such cold air and silence, just as the Wayne brothers felt something called fear for the first time.

“It’s a joke, a joke. Of course we are friends, what else? Don’t just stand there, sit down. Let’s drink together. And have some conversation after a long time.”

“U-uh…”

Suddenly, Aylen sat them down with a good-natured smile. The Wayne brothers, not knowing what to do at his sudden change of attitude, ended up taking their seats, and…

“Tsk, no fun. I thought a fun spectacle was about to happen…”

“Of course. There is no way a loser like Aylen would stand up to the Wayne brothers.”

“Let’s tip our glasses again.”

That moment was one where tension deflated, yet it was also the moment when the stopped time of the tavern flowed again.

However.

“So, what is the Novice Magic Engineer qualification exam? Tell me about that first.”

Already, Aylen’s eyes were not those of a prey.

They were still those of a predator targeting prey.

* * *

‘Who do they take for an easy mark, a retard, a half-wit Aylen? Ah… I am Aylen, right.’

Although I was cursed at out of nowhere and utterly disregarded as soon as I entered the tavern, I didn’t care at all. It was the same even when the Wayne brothers put me down and made personal attacks.

Because I was not the real Aylen.

Only…

“These sons of bitches…”

I couldn’t stay still.

No matter how much I had possessed Aylen, not by my own will but by something else.

‘The real Aylen disappeared because of me. Whether he died or vanished, it is clear that the cause was me.’

The real Aylen Vale lost his physical body because of me, and the one occupying that body is precisely me. Therefore, even for the sake of the vanished real Aylen, I must cherish this body.

Because that was the only respect and mourning I could do for him.

“So, what is the qualification exam? When is it held, and where do you take it?”

“Well, the qualification exam is…”

Perhaps because I put on a bluff putting forward my superior height, fortunately, there was no other clash with the Wayne brothers. Rather, failing to adapt to my physical changes, they only answered obediently to what I asked.

The ‘Novice Magic Engineer Qualification Exam’ I obtained from them was as follows.

“To be recognized as a magic engineer, you absolutely need a license, and the Novice exam is right next week, and it is held at the first embers called the Immortal Embers, right?”

“Right. Exactly.”

“And to go there, you need a letter of recommendation from an authoritative recommender…”

The magic engineer qualification exam was an exam where one could be issued a license with official effect, and it would be held in exactly 14 days, requiring a letter of recommendation from a person of authority without fail.

However, rather than what I was originally curious about, my heart was pounding at another piece of news…

‘The first embers, said to be the largest and greatest…! The embers of this world are not just this place!’

I could not control the boiling excitement as the grand premise in that ‘there is only one ember’ was being shattered to pieces.