4. Rynella’s fate is decided by Rynella (21)
Reynold Rainella.
He was the younger brother of Count Rainella, and one of the only two great wizards in the Rainella family.
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Just as the state of ‘Expert’ exists among martial people, there exists a hierarchy among wizards as well.
It mainly had to do with the number of rings surrounding the heart.
The ring of magical power surrounding the heart is called a ‘circle’, and mages can cross one spell per ring.
If there is only one heart ring, only simple spells can be used.
However, as the rings increase one by one, the spells that the magician can use increase and become more complex like a geometric progression, like a higher-order equation.
Among them, the level that was comparable to the prosecutor’s ‘expert’ was the ‘senior wizard’.
It was a word referring to a wizard with five heart rings. Elsie-senpai had reached this level, and with that alone, Elsie-senpai belonged to a very rare force.
However, even among the beings called ‘senior wizards’, there were exceptional ones.
When the heart’s rings reach five, it usually stops at that stage. It was because the road to go up to that level was too long.
To create six rings, it was not enough for a brilliant man to risk his entire life.
Sometimes, only a few people with talent, perseverance, and will were qualified to reach that level.
And only such people could be called ‘The Great Wizard’.
In the Rainella family, there were as many as two wizards who had reached that level.
The main characters were the head of the house, Count Rainella, and his younger brother, Reynold Rainella.
Even senior Elsie, who was still only in the 5th circle, was able to project terrifying firepower in a grand battle. Then, what will be the power of the ‘great wizard’ who has reached the 6th circle?
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Just imagining it made me break out in a cold sweat.
On the other hand, Ho Seung-sim secretly raised his head.
I, who had just become an Expert, was a kid who hadn’t even developed Aura traits. Of course, compared to Mr. Rainella, he would be far behind.
However, I wondered how good I would be against the Archmage.
No matter how much a battle mage was, a mage existed at a lower level than a swordsman in a person-to-person battle. It was because chanting took time.
Prosecutors don’t allow time for that.
Closing the gap and putting someone in the path of the sword was one of the tasks that swordsmen devoted their lives to. This was no exception even if the wizard was the opponent.
Rather, a tricky being like a wizard had to be cut off when there was an opportunity.
I wouldn’t know if it was a group battle with the avant-garde, but if it was a one-on-one match with a wizard, I wouldn’t have a very good chance of winning.
With that kind of mindset, I was about to go to the training ground with my arms.
Mr. Reynolds looked at me with a puzzled look.
“… … What are you doing?”
I also looked at Mr. Reynolds with a curious look. Mr. Reynolds was so tall that it was natural for him to look up a little.
Even though my height is over 180cm, it was like that.
“You want to see your skills?”
Only then did Mr. Reynolds guess my intentions.
A small bitter smile appeared on his lips. In the first place, he was a person who rarely expressed emotions.
It was like brother Aaron, but the result was a little different.
Aaron hyung always showed his heart through his actions. So if it was a strong and heavy feeling, Mr. Reynolds was different.
He was like a transparent lake.
It was rare for the emotion itself to be revealed on the surface enough to realize that the water had a color when you put your hand in it.
So Mr. Reynolds couldn’t help but feel cold to anyone.
He spoke in a voice that still couldn’t read his emotions.
“You’re a surprisingly violent friend, I never thought you’d take it as a sparring match.”
“… … No, then how are you going to check my skills?”
Mr. Reynolds took the lead instead of answering.
I had no choice but to follow Mr. Reynolds while tilting my head.
There were many rooms in the mansion of Percus.
Among them, there were rooms with a rather quiet atmosphere, but Mr. Reynolds opened the door to the one that served as a ‘meeting room’.
It was mainly a place where my father discussed the big and small things of the Percus family.
There was a person I had never seen before.
It was a young man with glasses.
He was a man with a wide chest, wearing clothes that made it difficult to move. He had a very tired expression on his face that seemed weak.
The clothes he was wearing were imperial official uniforms.
A relic of the past, even the imperial magistrates did not wear them except for a few missions.
Unfortunately, the man seemed to be in charge of those few.
As an envoy of the imperial family, it was the role of visiting the servants’ bags.
No matter how much the imperial family, it was rare for them to meddle in the domains of their subjects. Exceptionally, only the five noble families received the approval of the emperor when deciding on a family head.
The arrival of the imperial administrator here meant only one thing.
It meant that something was wrong in the Percus Territory.
As soon as the administrator saw me, he hurriedly got up and lowered his head.
“Hey, nice to meet you! Isn’t that Sir Ian?”
“Ah yes. Yes, but… … .”
He adjusted his dripping glasses and introduced himself.
“My name is ‘Arthur’. He’s the administrator dispatched to the Percus territory this time. Oh, by the way, this is confidential, so keep it as secret as possible… … .”
“Well, if you stay at the mansion anyway, you’ll know everything.”
“Isn’t the appearance of the original administrative affairs important?”
Then he smiled softly.
Mr. Reynolds leaned against the wall with a disapproving look on his face and crossed his arms. He didn’t even sit down, so it seemed that he didn’t particularly like this seat.
After all, isn’t he also a member of a high-ranking aristocratic family?
Many of the imperial administrators were from commoners. Arthur also didn’t introduce his last name, so it must have been, and I was just a low-ranking nobleman in the empire.
The level was a little low to face him who was in charge of the Rinella family.
Of course, Arthur was accustomed to such neglect.
“It’s nothing else, Sir Ian has a special request I want to give you.”
The attitude of Arthur, who was more than necessary, and the behavior of Mr. Reynolds, who had brought me here out of the blue, were jumbled in my mind.
No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t come up with an answer, so I was dumbfounded.
In the first place, he couldn’t even guess why Mr. Reynolds and the imperial administrator were together.
So I had no choice but to ask in a bewildered voice.
“Are you asking?”
“The Dark Church.”
To the brief question full of confusion, Mr. Reynolds returned a plain tone.
His blue eyes were staring at me.
“Since several years ago, the Rainella family has been following a peculiar trend within the territory.”
“… … It’s a missing person case.”
Those words came out of my mouth involuntarily.
Mr. Reynolds’ eyebrows twitched once. Arthur let out a slight exclamation and nodded his head.
However, that was the only reason they were dispatched to the Percus Territory at this time.
The disappearance case I had investigated in advance by requesting senior Neris.
It seemed to have been done in a large area over a longer period of time than expected.
“At first, I thought it was a simple disappearance of an unknown person.”
As Arthur said, he took one of the stacks of papers that had been piled up in his hand. His mouth began to scan the typeface through his glasses.
“But the conditions of the missing object are too specific. And it’s repetitive, and it happened over a long period of time. Even the territory, where disappearances frequently occur, is slowly being moved.”
“… … And now, that place is the Percus Territory.”
Arthur nodded once and agreed.
It felt like the mystery was finally solved.
Why was the Rynella family’s magic corps dispatched to the Percus territory at this time, and why the Percus family had no choice but to allow them to be stationed there?
It was understandable if they said that the imperial administrator was behind everything.
Arthur said bluntly.
“To be honest, the Empire suspects that the Dark Church exists behind it.”
“… … Are there good reasons for that?”
“No, not yet.”
My gaze went blank in an instant.
Then, naturally, the difficulty of the quest had to rise.
Because that meant we had to start from the bottom.
A deep sigh escaped my mouth.
Once the Dark Church got involved, things never worked out.