[V12C15] The Wish of the Gluttonous Boy King

“Here is the message from my master!”

Glenn retrieved a thick envelope from his shoulder bag and handed it to Melissa, before taking a seat in front of the table closest to the entrance.

Cyril took a seat to Glenn’s left, directly across from Melissa, with the eyepatched man positioned diagonally to his left.

The skeptical Melissa took out the contents of the envelope, then raised an eyebrow when she saw the first sheet of paper.

“…I guess your master isn’t stupid.”

Melissa held up the sheet for everyone to see. It contained two sentences written in large letters, making it easy to read even from a distance.

All important details are written on the second sheet and beyond. Do not expect anything from the linguistic and reporting abilities of my disciple.
——Barrier Mage Louis Miller.

A short and simple introduction to the personality of the Barrier Mage.

Melissa tossed the first sheet to the side and began reading through the rest.

Meanwhile, Cyril was still glancing nervously at the eyepatched man.

Perhaps he would turn this way? Perhaps he would start speaking soon?

However, whether he was aware of Cyril’s gaze or not, the man made no attempt to look in Cyril’s direction.

(Oh right, I should ask for his name…!)

Right as Cyril was about to initiate a conversation with the eyepatched man, Melissa let out a sigh.

It was a long, drawn-out sigh, as if she was releasing all her pent-up frustrations from the past few days.

“Hah… Alright, I’ve read everything. Give me a second to summarize the key points.”

Melissa tapped her nails against the table a few times, then lifted a hand with two fingers raised.

“The message from the capital can be divided into two main points. First, they’ve completed the verification on the shadow removal spell. The Barrier Mage is already back in action, and they’ve started resuscitating the other victims. It probably will take some time before they can get to everyone though.”

Cyril had heard a bit about Gluttonous Zoe’s powers. The shadows manipulated by the artifact could apparently possess people and drain their mana.

Anyone touched by the shadows would either fall into a coma, or have “something precious” stolen from them. This something could be a part of the victim’s body, or perhaps even something non-tangible.

But now, they had a means to counter the shadows.

“And second, as for the reason why reinforcements haven’t arrived…”

Melissa paused and glanced at Cyril.

“Cyril-sama, I see your signature as the author of the attached documents. May I ask you to provide an explanation?”

“Y-Yes, of course.”

Redirecting his attention away from the eyepatched man, Cyril hastily corrected his posture.

Rather than worrying about other things, he needed to perform his duty.

The weasels perched on Cyril’s shoulders whispered “You can do it” in a hushed tone that only Cyril could hear.

Cyril swallowed a gulp of saliva before speaking.

“I am Cyril Ashley, a member of the Library Society. I was assigned to gather information about Gluttonous Zoe in the Forbidden Archives with the Fifth Thorn Witch, Raul Roseberg-dono. Together, we came up with a certain hypothesis.”

Calm down. Stay focused. Reporting is your forte. Remember your reports to him. Cyril reminded himself of this as he continued his explanation.

Before anything else, he succinctly stated the most important part: the conclusion.

“We speculate that Gluttonous Zoe is attempting to summon the Spirit King of Darkness with the accumulated mana.”

In the Kingdom of Ridill, Spirit King Summoning was considered the most powerful form of magecraft. Only a handful of the nation’s mages could pull it off, and no one was capable of summoning the Spirit Kings of Light and Darkness.

In the first place, wielders of light and dark magic were incredibly rare to begin with.

Everyone in the room tensed up, except for Glenn, who didn’t seem to fully understand the importance.

“Is that a big deal?” Glenn interjected. “My master can do Spirit King Summoning too, right? Can’t the Seven Sages just summon a bunch of Spirit Kings to fight back?”

“First, allow me to explain that Spirit King Summoning does not physically summon the Spirit King. The spell creates a gate which allows the caster to borrow a portion of the Spirit King’s power, and manipulate it into any form they desire.”

For example, Monica often summoned the Spirit King of Wind, Shefield.

She sometimes used it offensively, like how she created spears of wind to pierce the foreheads of a flock of wyverns, or blades of wind to tear apart Raul’s Rose Fortress. On the other hand, she also used it to create the winds that carried flower petals throughout the town of Rainfield.

In other words, Spirit King Summoning allows the caster to perform an extremely high-level spell of the corresponding element.

“If Theodore is allowed to summon the Spirit King of Darkness, he will be able to cast a dark-aspected spell boasting immense power and precision. And by the inherent nature of dark magic…”

“Darkness clings…” Ray mumbled, interrupting Cyril.

Ray’s curses possessed a close resemblance to dark magic, so he probably understood this concept better than anyone else in the room.

“…Just like the wind blows and water flows, darkness has the nature of clinging to other things. This nature is sometimes utilized for curses as well…”

This also explained why the shadows from Gluttonous Zoe clung onto any humans they touched.

Cyril nodded and spread a copy of the documents across the table.

“In the event that Theodore invokes an extremely powerful dark spell, I believe that the residue mana will cling not only to humans, but also the land itself. This will result in mana contamination.”

Raul was researching the effect of mana-enhanced fertilizer on plants, and when doing so, he had to constantly check for the possibility of the mana contamination.

Contaminated land resulted in higher mana concentration, which could have adverse effects on both plants and people.

Ray’s purple hair and pink eyes came from a similar phenomenon. The abnormal pigmentation was a result of the excessive curses on his body influencing his hair and eye color.

Once a region becomes contaminated with mana, fixing it may be difficult or even impossible, depending on the severity.

For example, consider the incident with the runaway peas. Raul had accidentally caused mana contamination with his mistake of two decimal points.

But if Gluttonous Zoe were to summon the Spirit King of Darkness, then the resulting contamination was predicted to be several hundred to several thousands times more severe.

Cyril continued in a stern tone.

“Contaminated lands have increased mana density, making them more attractive to magical creatures like spirits and dragons.”

“Ah, I get it now!” Glenn exclaimed. “So if Gluttonous Zoe does the Spirit King Summoning, then it will cause mana contamination and draw in a bunch of dragons! Is that right?”

However, Cyril shook his head slightly.

“You’re not wrong, but that is only the beginning,” Cyril said, pulling out a map of Ridill.

It was a rather large map, so Cyril had trouble spreading it across the table. Thule and Pikeh descended from his shoulders to help by grabbing both ends.

“Researchers in the field of mana-mapping suggest a theory in which high-mana lands are connected to each other via underground leylines. If this theory is correct, then…”

Silas, who had been crossing his arms with a stern expression, suddenly widened his eyes in realization.

“Are you saying that the mana contamination from Gluttonous Zoe could spread to other regions?”

“Precisely, I believe that is a very plausible outcome. The worst case scenario is an increase to mana concentration across the entire Kingdom of Ridill… which would cause dragons to gather in areas with naturally higher mana.”

That would be an absolute disaster in any such areas adjacent to a human settlement. It would truly become the worst dragon disaster in history.

What’s more, Gluttonous Zoe’s last recorded usage was in the old era. Back then, the overall mana concentration was higher everywhere, so any deviations in mana had little impact.

However, the diminishing mana levels of the current era meant that many dragons and spirits had been displaced from their habitats.

If a mana-dense land were to suddenly pop up now, then any magical creatures searching for a home were almost certain to show up.

“So this is what the Starseer Witch’s prophesy was referring to…!?” Silas exclaimed with a vein bulging on his forehead.

Ignoring him, Melissa spoke while tapping her nails against the table.

“They’re allocating manpower to the nationwide dragon disaster, so we can’t expect significant reinforcements in Sazandol… Well, I suppose they’re still in the decision process, but we won’t be able to assemble all of the Sages.”

“Dammit!” Silas shouted. “That bastard Theodore! What the hell is he thinking?!”

Melissa glanced at Silas before turning back to Cyril. She had already finished reading the documents, so she was waiting for Cyril’s next words.

Cyril clenched his fists and continued.

“Mana contamination is merely a consequence of summoning the Spirit King of Darkness. This has nothing to do with Gluttonous Zoe’s true power or Theodore’s goal.”

Cyril folded the map held by Thule and Pikeh, then spread out another set of documents.

These contained summaries of various legends and myths regarding the Spirit King of Darkness from all over Ridill.

“There are many conflicting theories about Eldiora, the Spirit King of Darkness… But in the field of theology, many researchers believe she is the same entity as the Queen of the Underworld.”

It was said that those who die fall into the underworld. There, they descend a spiral staircase in complete darkness, reaching the gates of the underworld at the very bottom.

This gate was the boundary between the world of the living and the world of the dead. After passing through, there was no turning back.

Those who pass through this gate are welcomed by the Queen of the Underworld, granting them a peaceful slumber within the gentle embrace of darkness.

“If the Spirit King of Darkness and the Queen of the Underworld are truly the same, then there is one logical outcome that follows. Could it be that the summoning gate of the Spirit King corresponds to the gate of the underworld?”

Of course, it was not possible to physically summon the gate of the underworld, so it would be a magically constructed recreation of it.

Assuming this gate allowed the wielder to manifest a power belonging to the Queen of the Underworld, then only one thing came to mind.

The Lorelei from the Deepest Forbidden Section had spoken of the Gluttonous Boy King’s wish.

“Bringing back the dead. This is the true power of Gluttonous Zoe, as well as Theodore’s main goal… Based on my analysis, at least.”

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