THTE 57

Chapter 57

When people think of a mage, they usually imagine someone who sits around studying all day, frail and skinny, or maybe with a pudgy belly and weak stamina.

But when the Tower Master removed his shirt, what appeared instead was a body packed with firm, solid muscles.

Even at a glance, the density of those muscles was on another level.

“Wow, Grandpa, you’re in great shape!”

Armi Phera’s eyes sparkled.

“Even among mercenaries, you don’t often see muscles sculpted like that.”

A mercenary’s muscles were forged through battle, making them rough and bulky. Armi Phera’s own were like that too.

“Maybe better than Oppa’s?”

“This body’s been trained for over a hundred years.”

Mazia snorted, telling her to compare fairly, and showed his right arm.

At the point where his shoulder and arm connected, there was a black, sinister mark.

“Hm…”

The evil dragon, Ater, stared fixedly at the mark.

The stronger the magic or curse, the more complicated the spellwork behind it. The mark that emerged from it also became more intricate and geometric.

The mark on Mazia’s body was the same.

But the evil dragon Ater quickly noticed something strange.

The curse the mark indicated was different from the curse Mazia was actually suffering.

And within that mark, he could feel an eerie, twisted power.

“……”

The dragon’s black eyes narrowed.

He had discovered something good, and something horrifying.

He began with the good.

“For now, this is indeed the curse of the Evil Dragon.”

Then he spoke of the dreadful discovery.

“But it’s not the Curse of Immortality.”

A hundred and eighty years ago, the former evil dragon had cursed Mazia so that his arm would rot away.

But someone had altered that curse.

What Mazia bore was nothing like the curse Ater remembered inheriting.

The constant contradictions made him dizzy with nausea.

The dragon sagged in Armi Phera’s arms.

“Can I even trust my own memories…?”

Why had things changed so drastically?

Barely born, Ater now doubted his very existence.

From his earlier conversation with the Saintess, he had already realized that maybe he wasn’t truly the Evil Dragon at all.

Where had it all gone wrong?

Terrified, the little dragon buried his face in Armi Phera’s arms.

‘It’s like…’

As if someone had stolen a novel he had painstakingly written, cut it into pieces, then stuffed it with another story they’d stolen from elsewhere.

Strange and terrifying.

“…Evil Dragon.”

Mazia looked at the trembling hatchling and asked:

“Then, can you undo the curse I’m under now?”

The dragon shook his little head.

“If the curse hadn’t been altered, I could. It would take time since it’s tangled with your mana, but at most, a year.”

But the mark had been transformed. The original was gone, and something else had seeped in, completely mutating it.

“The culprit who twisted it has to lose their power first.”

“And this culprit—who is it?”

Armi Phera, who had been quietly listening, asked in an irritated voice.

She had more or less guessed what the conversation was hinting at.

To know for certain, one had to go back several months before Nibellia was even born.

Five years ago.

Back then, Nibellia had nearly met a horrible fate before she even came into the world.

‘So it was Areph who saved her from that fate.’

Of course, this was a secret that could never be spoken aloud, even under threat of death.

But the problem was this “culprit” they kept mentioning—the strange being that persistently targeted Nibellia and those around her.

“Why don’t we just get rid of this culprit?”

“We can’t.”

“Grandpa!”

“Your mother said not yet.”

At the mention of Muniel, Armi Phera, who looked ready to draw her sword, clamped her mouth shut with a groan.

“If Mother said no, then… fine.”

There must be a reason.

Still, the situation was frustrating, so she asked again.

“Then when can we kill it? We can kill it, right?”

Mazia glanced at the Evil Dragon.

At the same time, Ater was looking back at him. Hidden from Armi Phera, the dragon gave the slightest nod.

It could be killed.

Then he closed his black eyes for a long time.

But not yet.

Mazia, understanding his intent, answered:

“I don’t know.”

“I didn’t even know you were cursed, Grandpa. I just thought you were such a strong mage, that’s why you lived so long….”

She regretted so much, remembering how, as a child, she’d foolishly praised him for being a “young grandpa,” not knowing any better.

Mazia stroked the bowed head of his guilty granddaughter.

“It’s not all bad. In fact, it’s very good. We’ve finally found a lead to break the curse, and even the dragon I thought was my enemy turned out to be a fellow victim…”

Or… maybe not a victim.

Trying to see the bright side, Mazia faltered.

After all, that damned Evil Dragon had been the one to curse his arm to rot.

“That wasn’t me! That was the previous Evil Dragon!”

The hatchling cried shrilly, sounding wronged.

“If anything, assuming my memories are correct, it was you prowling around a dragon’s nest for specimens that…!”

Tower Master!

A summoning call suddenly rang from the opaque crystal orb on the desk.

Ater hastily transformed into a black kitten. He was so rushed that his wings remained attached.

“What is it?”

Mazia flicked his fingers, and a face appeared in the orb.

It was one of the kindergarten teachers.

[Something terrible has happened! Lady Nini—no, Lady Dei Amore—she…!]

Before the message was even finished, Mazia and Armi Phera were rushing toward the Tower Kindergarten.

And when they arrived, they froze at the unbelievable sight before them.

“Argh! Aaah! Waaah!”

“……”

“It hurts! Waaaah!”

Nibellia was straddling a boy, pummeling him with her fists.

She sat squarely on his stomach to keep him from twisting away, pinned his arms down with her feet, and expertly delivered punch after punch.

“Hit him more! More!”

“Go, Nini, go!”

Around them, the other children shouted “Fight! Fight!” fueling the frenzy.

“Tower Master…!”

The teachers had gone pale, on the verge of fainting.

“Wow.”

Armi Phera was genuinely impressed.

“She’s fiercer than a mercenary.”

The kindergarten had turned into a fighting pit.

The fight ended with Nibellia’s victory.

“Nini never loses!”

Nibellia couldn’t hide her excitement.

After so long without a proper fight, her blood was boiling with energy.

Meanwhile, Mazia and the teachers were pale as ghosts.

“You lovely thing! As expected of my niece!”

What a darling.

Armi Phera showered Nibellia’s cheeks with kisses.

This time, Nibellia didn’t dodge them.

After spending the past few days together, she had accepted that Armi Phera was an adult stronger than her.

But for what should have been a simple children’s scuffle, the condition of the boy Alex—who had been beaten beneath her—was worrying.

His lip had split, and blood dripped down.

And there was something odd about the other children’s reactions.

“Why didn’t you try to stop the fight?”

Mazia asked.

The children replied instantly, as if they’d been waiting for the question.

“Nini didn’t do anything wrong!”

“Yeah! Alex kept saying mean things to us. So Nini punished him for us.”

“He even told Nini to get lost first!”

“Alex has always been…!”

The kids all started shouting at once about what they’d seen. Mazia had to go one by one, asking each child in turn.

After listening carefully, Mazia stood.

He handed each child a piece of candy and chocolate.

“Teachers, step outside for a moment.”

He led the teachers into the hallway.

Then he asked:

“Why didn’t you separate them?”

“Well…”

One teacher hunched her shoulders and murmured:

“We were tidying up the children’s supplies for a moment, and when we looked away, the fight had already…”

“No. I’m asking why you didn’t pull them apart. It doesn’t matter who started it, or why you didn’t see it begin.”

At that, another teacher fidgeted and said:

“It’s because both of them…”

And with her explanation, Mazia’s mind went blank.

One child was the daughter of a founding noble house.

The other was the son of one of the Tower’s rare three-generation mage families—whose grandparents were both Tower Elders.

So, they hadn’t dared to intervene.

Mazia was speechless.

Then furious.

“I made it perfectly clear, didn’t I?”

At the Tower’s kindergarten and academy, parents’ status and rank were never to be considered.

This had been emphasized again and again when Nibellia and Areph were brought in.

It was to prevent children from growing arrogant, relying solely on their parents’ power.

Especially since mages held real power.

The kind of power that could hurt people.

That’s why Mazia had been so strict about their character education. To keep them from abusing power recklessly, lest they end up cursed like him.

But today—

He had just witnessed the exact problem he had long feared.

And it wasn’t something new either.

“Yeah! Alex kept saying mean things to us. So Nini punished him for us.”

“Alex has always been…!”