Chapter 56 – Making a Plan

When I finished the manufacturing, everyone stared at me silently as if they had witnessed something miraculous.

Even Will Ford, who had worked together with me, kept his eyes fixed on the power board, unable to hide his astonishment with his mouth wide open.

He seemed to have properly recognized the skill I displayed in the finishing process.

“Aren’t we departing?”

Although they did not utter a single word, I needlessly urged them because their gaze, which felt like looking at a non-human being, was burdensome.

“O-oh… we should go.”

“Let’s pack up quickly, hurry.”

Only then did they shake off their dazed expressions and begin loading the equipment onto the off-roader.

Having sent all the other people inside, I reassembled the magic board onto the hood and thought about what I had just done.

‘To think this was actually possible.’

Honestly, even for me, it was difficult to be sure of success in the final process.

Because that was not the realm of magic engineering, but literally the realm of ‘magic.’

However, rather than feeling joy at the success of this near-impossible task, I only harbored suspicion.

‘Could the reason he told me to visit the Magic Ember be…’

Herman Melville’s advice—no, order—to visit the Magic Ember within half a year.

At the time I was in the interrogation room, I could not guess his intention, but now that I had led the task to success solely through mana sensitivity, I felt I understood why he had said those words.

It must have meant that although I had not awakened my mana essence yet, there was room for me to awaken it, and that very awakening method lay in the Magic Ember.

‘What on earth is the reason he did not kill me despite knowing all of that?’

However, the more I thought about it, the deeper the question became.

Why did he give me a clue to grow as a mage?

Even back in the interrogation room, I had drawn a line with them by expressing my clear intention not to listen to Herman Melville’s talk any further.

And how did he judge that I had the quality to become a mage?

There was no magic engineering equipment in the room except for a crystal ball that functioned as a CCTV, and Herman Melville was also lightly dressed.

Not only was it incomprehensible that he leaked such advanced information to me without any compensation, but it was even more baffling that he recognized my quality to awaken the essence.

Unless he was a mage, which was absolutely impossible, there were one or two points of doubt in this and that.

However, whatever the reason was, the truly important thing lay elsewhere.

‘What is the real goal he wants to reach through me…’

It was Herman Melville’s ultimate goal.

‘He definitely has some purpose…’

I could not understand his actions right now.

But there was no action of humans that lacked a reason, and none that lacked a purpose.

He had a clear goal he wished to accomplish through me, who would become a mage.

Whether to visit the Magic Ember within half a year or not… what I truly had to find out was that very goal.

If it was a dream Herman Melville dreamed, it would be a dream that would affect this entire world, and depending on what that dream was, I could become his ally, or an enemy who had to kill each other.

However, even if we were to become enemies in the future, I had to exploit the goodwill Herman Melville showed me to the maximum.

Because whatever the reason was, it was indeed beneficial to me.

‘How much does Natasha know?’

Having realized Herman Melville’s intentions, Natasha naturally did not feel entirely comfortable to me either.

For I could not confess all the inner circumstances to someone who might become an enemy, could I?

The most fatal enemies were always those who had once been colleagues.

“Does that mean I shouldn’t get too close either.”

Thud!

Feeling bitterness, I closed the hood of the repaired off-roader and got into the vehicle.

There was Natasha welcoming me warmly.

“Thanks to Lord Aylen, we are going so comfortably like this. Thank you.”

“No need for thanks. I just did what I had to do.”

I replied casually, but my mind was complicated.

Not to mention how much Natasha knew, but it was hard to distinguish whether this innocent face and behavior she showed me now were acting or not.

‘Forget it. Let’s stop.’

I stopped thinking.

There was no foolishness like holding onto a problem that could not be solved by agonizing over it.

Therefore, with only a single day left until our ember, there was only one thing I had to think about.

It was solely to push out the leadership that had seized the ember and ascend as the leader.

* * *

Dawn, when the fatigue of the entire party reached its peak due to the threat of mutants attacking from time to time and the breakdown of the off-roader.

It was while I, having taken over from Jenkins who complained of reaching his limit, was driving the off-roader in silence.

“Aylen, I was sorry for everything during this time.”

Thomas, who took the passenger seat while everyone was asleep, spoke to me.

“It’s fine, so you don’t have to say you’re sorry anymore.”

I answered casually.

For we had already shaken off all the misunderstandings and the past of the bygone days at the Immortal Embers.

However, Thomas’s expression was serious as never before.

“How can you be so unaffected like that?”

“…?”

“Or are you pretending to be unaffected?”

‘Is this fellow not simply talking about what happened at the tavern?’

Since I also had wits, I had now realized.

That there was definitely some reason why the change in the Wayne brothers’ behavior was so sudden.

That there was a past history between us older than just a few months of assault.

“How could I be unaffected? Just as you said, I am pretending to be. Since it is a past that holds nothing but wounds if brought up.”

However, having merely possessed this body during that transition period, I did not know the past between us in detail.

Therefore, I acted, wearing a hurt expression toward Thomas as if he had hit the mark.

As intended, there was a past history that came naturally out of his mouth.

“It may be a past full of wounds, just as you said. But ten years ago, we were each other’s support. Until things went wrong, that is.”

“Was that so…”

““I sometimes recall that time too. To us who were locked in a room only studying magic engineering, you became the world, and to you who had no talent in magic engineering, our brothers became good teachers. Looking back, it was indeed… a good time.””

Lest I arouse unnecessary suspicion by speaking clumsily, I nodded without replying.

However, because Thomas’s voice was so pitiful, I felt a genuine sense of pity.

I thought that Thomas and Willus at that tavern, who had threatened me, might have been wounded young children back then.

“So what is the real reason you forgave me? It wasn’t an emotion that would be resolved merely by helping us at the forum.”

It was a question based on his words that things went wrong ten years ago.

For such resentment and deep-seated feelings could not possibly be resolved by a single act of goodwill, could they?

My guess pierced precisely into the core.

“…I saw your diary.”

He opened his mouth with difficulty.

“A diary?”

“After you went missing. That is, the diary Lord Demian found while tidying up your room, thinking you must have died. He gave that to us.”

“And you read it?”

“It said in the diary that due to your lack of talent, Lord Demian compared you to our brothers and eventually neglected you. So you harbored jealousy toward us and spoke mean words out of childish behavior.”

“…”

“I thought that maybe we had made you that way. Of course, it might not be my or Willus’s fault, but just as you didn’t know our circumstances, we didn’t know yours either. The dirty fight of the adults splashed onto us too.”

The Wayne brothers, whom I thought must have lived receiving good treatment while growing up as elites, had a life full of stories.

The same went for me, whom I had considered to have lived as a scoundrel since childhood due to being naturally lazy and lacking talent.

I could finally deeply understand not only the Wayne brothers, but also the life of Aylen Vale.

We were not simply elites steeped in an elitist mindset, or scoundrels with ruined natures.

“Anyway, ten years ago, you were a positive guy, unlike now. There was a time when you went out hunting and almost died to a wolf, and what you said back then was…”

From Thomas’s story that continued after that, I could hear the concrete past history involving me and the Wayne brothers, and me and Demian Vale.

‘So I was this kind of guy. I think I know why Demian praised me.’

I remembered Demian offering me praise when I visited the Magic Engineering Department.

However, that was not because I displayed unexpected magic engineering talent, but rather his own gratitude and apology toward the son who came to find him first, overcoming the pain of the past.

While understanding those complex, intertwined emotions, Thomas spoke.

“Still, do not hate your father too much. Lord Demian must have also suffered from immense pressure as the Head of the Magic Engineering Department. Furthermore, since you were in the Magic Engineering Department and our brothers were in the leadership, in a competitive relationship, he had no choice but to be stricter.”

Even if Demian Vale was the next great magic engineer, it did not mean he was also excellent in character.

Like Thomas’s words, since he was also an imperfect human being, he might have failed as a parent.

However.

“Environment can change humans, but there are also humans who do not yield to their environment.”

“…?”

“‘It couldn’t be helped,’ such words are merely excuses. You and I are just victims sacrificed to Demian’s excuses.”

I had to exploit the sense of debt Demian held toward me.

Since being in a superior position was more advantageous than an equal relationship.

Just as I was about to wrap up the conversation like that.

“Anyway, thanks to you, Aylen, I could decide to return to the ember. I also thank you for that.”

He kindled the embers of conversation once more.

“Do not misunderstand. I am not saying I’m returning because of you.”

“Then?”

“Willus and I tried to abandon the ember and migrate to another. The forum itself is an event to contact scouts. In a way, it is a betrayal.”

‘Did they intend to settle the sickening past and stab Merel Wayne in the back at the same time?’

Since they were imprisoned for a long time in their childhood, it was natural to harbor bad feelings.

Considering what was done to them, it could be described as revenge rather than betrayal.

Thomas also had an expression as if he knew that.

Was it because of that?

“Looking at you returning to the ember, I felt it clearly. That fighting back instead of running away is revenge. That real revenge is like that.”

We had in common that each of us grew up under our father’s abuse and neglect.

It meant the target of revenge lay in our ember.

However, although I was merely returning because I naturally had to become a leader, it seemed my action served as some trigger to the Wayne brothers.

At any rate, since it was a good thing for me that he was not leaving, just as I nodded, an unexpected figure and group emerged from Thomas’s mouth.

“So, Willus and I resolved. Once we finish our revenge on our father Merel Wayne, we shall also drag down Yan Casselos and the leadership for the sake of our ember.”

Yan Casselos and the leadership, those were precisely it.