Episode 56
056. The Grand Wizard of Fantasy
After all the auctions concluded, Dussar and Kalliss approached Geumson. Dussar, unable to hide his excitement, slapped his back heartily and said:
“Kuhahaha! I knew it! The auction results weren’t bad at all!”
Dussar let out a hearty laugh, handing over a crystal card containing the proceeds and the ‘Iron Rod from a Forgotten Ancient Ruin’ Geumson had won.
“Here, the proceeds and your item. I waived the commission fee as a special favor.”
Geumson accepted the card with a slightly dazed expression. When Geumson expressed his thanks, the two asked him about his future plans.
“Where do you plan to go now? Staying in Kratum to build more fame is a good method too…”
Dussar suggested first.
But golden hands shook his head.
“No. I think I need to leave for a while. I have something to learn.”
“Something to learn?”
“I intend to learn some magic.”
At his answer, Dussar’s eyes widened, but Kalliss nodded as if he had expected it.
“As I thought… a wise judgment. To craft items properly, one cannot leave out magic. Even if you can’t use it, it’s good to learn at least the theory.”
Calliss took out a letter, tightly sealed with wax, from his pocket.
“This is a letter of introduction from me to the Grand Mage ‘Astrid,’ who resides in seclusion in the magic city of ‘Aertos.’ Her personality is eccentric; she doesn’t take just anyone as a disciple… but if you show her this letter, you won’t at least be turned away at the door.”
[Acquired Collector Calliss’s Letter of Introduction.]
Geumson’s eyes widened at the name of the Grand Mage ‘Astrid.’ As Calliss said, she did not take just anyone as a disciple. She had accepted only one.
‘The Grand Illusionist, Jeong Harin.’
She had taken only one disciple, yet that disciple became a Grand Mage included among the Final Ten of the Age of Ruin.
‘Is the quest to become Astrid’s disciple received through Calliss?’
Countless players had wanted to become her disciple but failed. Even golden hand, with Calliss’s letter, might fail. Until meeting Astrid in person, nothing could be certain.
But one thing was clear: if he could become Astrid’s disciple, Geumson’s magical prowess would be on par with that of a proper wizard. So, golden hand bowed his head in gratitude for Calliss’s favor.
“Thank you. I will not forget this kindness.”
“Kindness? That’s not it. Rather, I have great expectations of you.”
Calliss smiled meaningfully and patted his shoulder.
golden hand bid farewell to the two men and, taking Iron Walker and Tia, left Kratum. His next destination was Airtos. But on the way there, there was a place he absolutely had to visit.
‘The Forgotten City of Giants…’
golden hand hurried toward it. But suspicious shadows began to secretly tail him.
Leaving Kratum for the magic city, Aertos. But before that, the road leading to the ‘Forgotten City of Giants.’
Thump-thump-thump-thump—
Tiaat! Tii—
On that road, golden hand was being carried on Iron Walker’s back. And Tia was perched on the shoulder of the carried golden hand. Faced with this somewhat bizarre spectacle, Geumson felt a serious need for a ‘mount.’
‘It just doesn’t look… good.’
It wasn’t exactly like animals stacked in a fairy tale, but the peculiarly layered sight made Golden Hand chuckle wryly. However, amid that chuckle, a memory suddenly surfaced.
‘Jeong Harin… I didn’t know I’d meet her teacher, Astrid.’
Not much was known about Astrid other than that she was ‘Jeong Harin’s’ teacher. She wasn’t a well-known NPC in Lepyon to begin with. However, among players, the ‘Grand Illusionist Jeong Harin’ was far better known than Grand Mage Astrid.
‘Jeong Harin…’
Thinking of Jeong Harin, Golden Hands let out a deep sigh.
The wizard who shone most brilliantly on humanity’s final defensive line in the Age of Ruin.
People called her the ‘Grand Illusionist.’ Her magic was always so intricate and beautiful it was indistinguishable from reality. But Golden Hands knew the reason she was so obsessed with ‘illusions.’
‘Will she be called the Grand Wizard of Fantasy again this time? I hope not…’
During that time when everything was collapsing.
Just before the human underground shelter ‘Undertank 17′ fell to the monsters’ all-out offensive.
Grrrrrumble—!
Muddy water poured from the ceiling like rain, and red warning lights flashed despairingly all over the walls.
The groans of the wounded and the cries of frightened children mingled, creating a scene of hell.
At its center, a woman with a pale face was chanting incantations.
wizard Jeong Harin.
Her eyes were sunken, her lips parched and cracked. Days and nights of maintaining defensive magic had long since depleted her magic.
But she couldn’t stop. Because she knew the moment she stopped, the thousands of lives here would all meet their end.
“Jeong Harin, the item you requested. Will this help?”
golden hand handed her the requested item and asked. But she only answered mechanically with vacant eyes.
“Oh… thank you. With this, yes, with this we can hold out until reinforcements arrive. Just a little longer, right? golden hand… right?”
Her voice trembled as thin as a thread.
Reinforcements were not coming. All external communications had been cut off long ago. It was a lie she told herself, one she herself knew.
It was then.
From behind her, among the refugees, a small boy crouching stumbled toward her.
A boy who looked about ten, with eyes exactly like hers.
“Sis… is it hard?”
At the boy’s worried question, a faint smile spread across Jeong Harin’s dying face for the first time. She stretched out a trembling hand and stroked the boy’s head.
“No, it’s okay, Hajun. Sis is okay. Just wait a little. Dad will come to get us soon.”
Jeong Hajun.
Her one and only younger brother.
The being who, having lost both parents on the day the Gates opened, became each other’s sole support.
The only reason she had been able to endure in this hellish world.
Kwaaaaaaang—!
At that moment, the shelter’s final defensive wall shattered with a deafening roar.
Beyond the broken wall, hundreds of red eyes gleamed greedily from within the pitch-black darkness.
Grooooooar!
A flood of monsters and beasts.
Jeong Harin squeezed out her last remaining magic and blocked the path before her brother.
“Don’t come! Stay back!”
But her magic no longer exerted any power.
The faint flame that left her fingertips dissipated into nothingness before even touching the beast’s tough hide.
One of the beasts lifted its massive foreleg as if mocking her.
Jeong Harin tightly shut her eyes. But the expected pain did not come.
Instead, a small scream from behind.
“Sis!”
When Jeong Harin turned around in horror.
What met her eyes was the sight of her younger brother collapsing, coughing up red blood.
A fragment from the ceiling had fallen, of all places, right onto the head of the brother she had tried to protect.
“Ha…Hajun?”
At that moment, her world stopped.
All surrounding sounds vanished, and only the image of her fallen brother was imprinted on her eyes in slow motion.
She staggered toward her brother.
Kneeling, she pulled the small, growing cold body into her embrace.
“Hajun… Hajun, you’re joking, right? Huh? Open your eyes… please? It’s my fault… So open your eyes, huh?”
Hot tears streamed down her cheeks. But no answer came.
At that moment, something inside her ‘snapped.’
The something she had been desperately holding onto broke.
“Ah… aah… AAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
A wail erupted from her mouth.
It was a curse toward the world and a bitter resentment of her own powerlessness.
At that moment, an incomparable storm of magic burst from her body.
[Mage Jeong Harin ‘Awakens.’]
She no longer cried.
Instead, looking down at her brother’s face with empty eyes, she whispered softly.
“It’s okay, Hajun. It’s okay… Sis is right here.”
A light blooming from her fingertips enveloped her brother’s wounds.
But it was not a light of healing.
It was the dazzlingly beautiful light of ‘Illusion’ that covered everything.
“It won’t hurt anymore. See, all the wounds are gone? Now get up, let’s go to Dad. Dad said he bought chicken, Hajun’s favorite.”
Under her magic, her brother’s bloodied appearance transformed into a clean, unblemished form.
Even his closed eyes slowly opened, and he smiled brightly at her.
“Sis… I’m hungry.”
“Yeah, our Hajun was hungry? Let’s go, quickly.”
Jeong Harin took ‘Hajun’s’ hand and stood up.
No longer could she see the beasts pouring in or the collapsing shelter.
Only the sight of her brother, holding her hand and smiling, was visible.
And so, she kept the illusion she had created by her side.
The illusion she created was so perfect it was indistinguishable from a living person.
But it was ultimately false happiness.
Nothing more than a sad mirage destined to shatter someday.
Even so, Geumson could say nothing to Jeong Harin.
On that day, the Grand Illusionist, Jeong Harin, was born.
