3-star (3)
What is life?
It took Drest a very long time to find the answer to that question.
He was born as the son of a tenant farmer belonging to the Zeblon County in the central part of the Empire.
When he was young, he ran around the mountains and fields, and when he came of age, he learned to plow, cultivate fields, and harvest crops, and during the spring famine he went hunting in the wild hills just to get by.
His family was poor but harmonious, he had no ambitions, and his dream was to find a good partner, buy some decent land, and become the proper owner of a large field and a household.
Without even a grain of greed, he was just a tenant farmer youth whose goal was to live earnestly.
However, the heavens gave him talent.
Late at night, when he sat in the field hugging his plow and looked up at the starry sky, it felt as if the principles of the heavens were reflected in his eyes.
The flowing mana looked like a scene of nature, like a river rushing by, and the single drop of mana flowing at the tip of his fingernail felt like a part of his body.
He learned magic. It was not because he held any ambition and devoted himself to the path of magic. He just did it because he could.
Just by watching the mages in the city use mana, and by sensing the flow of mana contained in nature, he was able to realize magic in his own unique way. He became able to predict when the wind would blow, and he felt like he could tell when it would rain.
When he walked through the forest, the rustling sound of each leaf seeped into his ears, and it felt as if every single movement could be fully read.
He would aim his bow in advance at the places where mountain beasts would land, and he would avoid places where rocks seemed like they might collapse.
He was a mage from a commoner background.
When he became an adult, he was already 2-star, and when he grew some beard and started a family, he had reached 3-star. He became a heroic figure in a small village on the outskirts of the territory, and his whole family respected him as their head.
His wife, who had been the miller's daughter, was kind and beautiful and always worried about him, and his two lovely daughters always made their eyes shine as they watched their father's magic skill.
He realized it.
If the first act of my life was life as a tenant farmer, then the second act is life as a mage. Thinking so, he became excited about his own magic achievement and immersed himself even more in magic. He would read Magic Books he had obtained from the city all day long, and while improving and developing countless Search-type Magic, he pulled them into his own domain.
When he came to his senses, there were hardly any mages from commoner backgrounds who could keep up with him.
Before he turned forty, wouldn't he be able to reach the realm of 4-star. Then, wouldn't the second act of his life shine even more brilliantly. With such thoughts in mind, he devoted himself even more to magic and farming in that small rural village.
And then, his life entered the third act. A life as a revenge-seeker.
Everyone in the world paid their respects to him for having reached the realm of 3-star. Even famous nobles expressed their amazement that a mage from a commoner background had reached such a realm, and among commoner mages he became almost like a spiritual pillar.
Rumors about Drest, the Search-type Mage of Zeblon County, spread as far as Ebelstein. Even if he was a commoner, he became living proof that one could reach the realm of an Upper-level Mage.
All kinds of mages began to visit the village where he lived, and they began to ask him for teachings.
Most of them were people deeply immersed in magic as a discipline, and having conversations with them was enjoyable. However, from time to time, there were also those who came to discuss things beyond magic.
They were people who harbored resentment toward those Bloodline nobles who wielded magic like a privilege and ruled the world.
Some even shouted that the world should be changed with the fierce temperament of mages from the bottom.
The next year, they were all hanging with their heads displayed in the city square.
It seemed they had been caught trying to assassinate Count Zeblon. It was a terrible end.
However, even if the people changed, those with such temperament would appear again from time to time.
To them, the existence of Drest, who as a commoner was aiming beyond the realm of 4-star magic, was truly like a savior.
There were many who wanted to elevate him, regard him as living proof, and try to change the world.
Drest had no interest in such reforms.
Although he had entered the ranks of an Upper-level Mage, his fundamental nature was not much different from when he had been a tenant farmer plowing fields. What he wanted was only personal achievement, and he did not care about reforming the world.
If he could reach a higher realm himself, and besides that feed his wife and daughters well, that was enough. He lived holding just that much hope.
And then, the year after that, Count Zeblon ordered people to kill the entire Drest family.
The reformists who sporadically popped up all believed in and followed Drest like a savior. As his realm gradually rose and he began to surpass 4-star, their numbers would only increase.
The count wanted to cut off all seeds. Even though Drest did not lead the reforms, it was true that he had become their starting point.
Countless crimes were pinned on him. All kinds of filthy crimes he had never committed tarnished his honor. Paradoxically, the only ones who understood that all of it was slander were the reformists who had driven Drest into this situation.
One day, when he returned home, the house was stained with blood.
His wife's corpse was hanging on the wall. His two daughters had been raped and murdered, lying on the floor in a pool of blood.
The house was set on fire, and a huge bonfire shot a reddish glow into the night sky.
The blood of the villagers who had been close and friendly with him flowed like a river. Burning bundles of rice straw rolled on the ground, and sparks occasionally flared up. It was a scene of everything in the village where he had been born and raised being reduced to nothing. On the faces of the soldiers who were setting the fire, every single one of them had an expression of ecstasy.
The reformists came close to Drest's ear and whispered. This is all the doing of those nobles.
That instigation turned Drest into a revenge-seeker who had crawled up from hell. Years passed, countless battles and chases followed, and he even went as far as sneaking into the mansion and reaching the point right before killing Count Zeblon.
However, he could not kill Count Zeblon.
In the burning count's mansion, the count, trembling in fear and tightly hugging his daughters, bowed his head and begged for his life. In front of the Count Zeblon who tearfully pleaded to at least spare these children, Drest's eyes were still burning with revenge.
Revenge is empty. Even if you take revenge, all that remains afterward is new hatred and emptiness.
He was not unaware of that fact. Still, he had to do it. Even if it would be empty and futile, that was something to think about after doing it. He had no confidence to live his whole life carrying this burning revenge in his heart.
The chain of hatred must be cut someday, but it does not have to start with himself.
And at the moment when mana of killing intent began to rise, he ended up recalling his own innocent children when he looked at the count's two daughters trembling in fear. They were children without sin. Just like his own daughters who had died in vain, these children also had no sin.
Drest closed his eyes tightly and pondered, then cut out one of Count Zeblon's eyes, his tongue, and the tendons in both of his legs. The count writhed in pain and spilled blood. Leaving him crippled for life like that, Drest left the count's mansion.
Thus, he became a public enemy in Noble Society.
He lived being chased for over ten years.
Countless mages who believed in and followed him tried to protect him, and died.
All those called his close associates also died. Thus, many years passed, and even while everyone else was caught, Drest alone was never caught.
Not only high-ranking nobles, but even a 5-star mage of the Imperial Palace failed to find and capture him.
By the time he had already become fifty years old, he had passed the early stage of 5-star and reached the middle stage. His sky-piercing revenge had honed him into the greatest Search-type Mage in the world.
Already beginning to grow old, he did not run fast. He had no special means of transportation, and no secret passages that only he knew.
Even though he walked slowly, along the same roads everyone used, no one could catch him. As if he already knew when and where pursuit squads would appear, the old man who slowly drifted through the world moved like a ghost.
Thus, after another fifteen years passed, when he had gone beyond the age of sixty, the high-ranking Noble Society completely gave up on capturing him.
It had already been close to thirty years since he had committed the crime of harming Count Zeblon. Time was something that weathered everything in the world. Crimes were the same.
Only after thirty years had passed did the nobles have to admit it. Capturing Drest Wolftail was impossible.
If they could not completely suppress him who held the seed of reform, then at the very least they had to draw him into their own sphere. Thus, after a long time, the nobles gave up on everything and decided to deal with him in a different way.
A few years later, the Imperial Palace of the Empire granted Sir Drest the title of Viscount.
If they could not control him, they intended to make him a fellow noble and protect their authority. Only after more than thirty-five years had passed did he finally become free from pursuit squads, and many people stepped forward to clear up misunderstandings about him.
The Emperor personally stepped in and settled the grudge with the Count Zeblon Family, gave sufficient courtesy, compensation, and an apology, and at last he became a free man. When he came to his senses, his life had entered its twilight years, and he had become a proper noble. Now he was no longer a figure on the commoner side, but a figure on the noble side.
He had no territory, not even a single mansion. Even so, he became a figure who had risen to the seat of nobility purely through magic skill alone from a commoner background, and was accepted as someone thoroughly separated from the commoners.
Now, commoners rarely thought about overturning the nobles when they looked at him.
He was talked about as a person who had received a noble title purely through magic skill alone, making countless commoners believe that if they lived diligently, someday they too could receive such fortune.
Drest did not even seem to care about such gazes from the world. By this point, everything in his life had already become empty.
And in some ways, that was not even wrong. He truly was the only person who had broken the nobles' sense of privilege in the entire world purely through magic skill alone.
He had already reached the realm of 6-star, and had become one of the greatest mages in the world. However, to the people of the world, he was known as 4-star.
He did not even have a proper faction, but in the world it was said that he lived in luxury.
He had no ambitions at all, but to the people of the world, he was known as an ambitious commoner mage.
Those who followed him established an academy in his name, and though he would occasionally owe them favors, whenever he had the chance he wandered the world.
He climbed high mountains and looked down at the world, and entered the deepest caves and entrusted his body to the darkness.
Living like that, drifting through a life with no family and no close friends, he eventually became eighty, and then ninety.
When he looked down upon the world like that, everything had changed.
The old man looked up at the high sky like that. Even though countless years had passed, the sun, the moon, and the stars were all still firmly in their places. Even though it had been such a turbulent journey, everything in that sky was still the same as if nothing had ever happened.
Then, the old man who had been walking quietly, without any sign at all, looked at the sky and muttered.
"So that's how it is. This is life."
He had been a beloved only son of a father, a reliable Family Head of a household, and a revenge-seeker mad with blood.
He had been a recluse eccentric eroded by emptiness, a spiritual pillar of an academy, an idol to some commoners, and an enemy to some nobles.
And sometimes he was someone's companion, and sometimes someone's enemy.
Having entered the twilight years like that, there was not much sentiment left.
"When everything passes, it's nothing much."
Life was like that.
Only after entering the twilight years of life did the old man finally realize.
He had run as if being chased, and sometimes only moved forward absentmindedly ...
But in the end, this too had been one life.
*
"Boy, your magic talent is too ambiguous."
In the southwest of the Empire, drifting spirit wander around.
Derrick could not possibly know even the rumors circulating among high-ranking nobles, but at least everyone agreed that this old man full of rings of age looked like a ghost.
The old man who left the tavern together with Derrick walked through the sleeping streets in the dawn air as if drifting.
As Derrick followed behind, Drest evaluated his magic talent in a rough yet weak voice.
"Ambiguous?"
"Yes."
There had not been a single person in his life who had said that Derrick's magic talent was ambiguous.
He had reached 2-star at the age of fourteen, and at seventeen he was aiming for 3-star.
In some ways, he might achieve even faster magic achievement than Drest. That was how exceptional Derrick's magic talent was.
However, Drest said that such talent of Derrick was ambiguous. In his eyes, it seemed as if he could see some farther realm.
"If you dream of a high realm as a commoner mage, being half-baked will not lead to a good ending."
"....."
"If you want to find a way forward, you must be overwhelming."
Derrick had to think about what to answer. To be honest, he thought that even his current level was already overwhelming.
"There will be a great upheaval in the west of the Empire. If you want to survive, you must be more outstanding than now."
"........"
He walked through the shabby alleys of the dark night, and then he grabbed the hem of his robe, tidied it up, and turned around.
In the place covered in darkness, the cold gaze of the old mage was faintly shining.
"Combat-type Magic will protect your body in countless unexpected situations, and Illusion-type Magic will create countless variables in all kinds of situations. However, if you want to use such magic at the right place and time, you must also know how to properly acquire information about the situation and the environment."
Drest's thin hand cut through the air, and then he tightly clenched it into a fist.
The amount of mana bursting out seemed to cover the sky. The delicacy of the many spell formulas being inscribed on top of it made even Derrick, who had already deepened his understanding in various fields of magic, have no choice but to widen his eyes.
Looking at those spell formulas shining brilliantly like they were embroidering the dark night streets, Derrick's eyes were completely captivated and shone.
The Search-type Magic formulas that were 펼쳐진 were of an entirely different dimension from anything Derrick had experienced so far.
That grand feast of mana looked like a nautical chart pointing toward a distant golden land.
*
The next day,
Tavern 'Tears of Veldern'
Since all kinds of letters had arrived in great numbers since morning, Jayden had to move busily.
It was normal for request letters to come in, but today, many particularly special letters had arrived.
'In all my life, I never thought I'd receive letters from the Beltus, Belmiard, and Duplein families all at once. You really do have to live long to see things.'
Compared to when it had just been founded, the Veldern Mercenary Corps had gained quite a bit of name value.
Derrick had contributed, Jayden himself had run around, and the other members had also worked hard.
However, even so, it was not to the point that they had become famous enough to receive requests from the three most renowned families in the western Empire at the same time.
Surely, the person these letters wanted was only one.
He was in the middle of worrying about how to handle this.
–Thud!
"Oh, Derrick!"
When he saw Derrick come in after boldly opening the tavern door, Jayden greeted him happily.
A lot of profitable requests had come in. He was just about to say that, when Derrick picked up a food pouch that had been placed in the corner of the bar counter, put down one silver coin, and said in an urgent voice.
"From today on, please refuse all requests. There are plenty of other members, so it'll be fine, right? It's about time for me to rest too."
".....What?"
Jayden knew well that Derrick took periodic breaks, but even so, the clients were all huge figures.
This was not something that could be easily refused. He was about to explain that situation, but Derrick spoke in a hurried voice as if he was busy.
"I'll head out now. I've got something urgent to take care of."
It was rare for Derrick, who was always relaxed, to act as if a fire had fallen on his feet like this.
The strange sense of anticipation in his eyes made him look as if he was about to fulfill a long-cherished wish. It felt so different from his always calm appearance that it was ominous.
Jayden tried to explain that it would not be easy to refuse these requests, but Derrick was already dashing out of the tavern with light steps.
Someone seeing it for the first time might not notice, but Jayden, who had watched Derrick for a long time, could tell. Derrick was now in a state of extreme excitement.
Right now, he had no intention of teaching anyone.