Immortal's Ascending Path-45
Episode-45< Royal Wedding >
"Did you say Oxana?"
A goat-like voice asked from beyond the door.
"Yes. I was taught by Oxana Narses."
"Wait a moment. I'll check."
While waiting on the narrow path, Fritz asked,
"Why are you using that name?"
Oxana Narses was the second wife of Matthias, a vassal of Count Meyer. She was also a sorceress who, blinded by jealousy, tried to turn her stepdaughter into a four-legged animal and offer her as a sacrifice.
Fritz asked why Roberta brought up Oxana's name as her teacher after giving a false name.
"It's the most appropriate. Do you remember the customs of sorcerers?"
"You said they use their teacher's name as their surname."
Roberta nodded.
"That's right. Just as there is no sorcerer without a teacher, there is no sorcerer without a surname."
She said that a surname is like an identification for a sorcerer.
"I don't know why this custom arose, but a teacher's name is like a guarantee. If my surname is Oxana, it means that person is my teacher and proves that I am qualified as a sorcerer."
"Does that have any meaning? Isn't it a method anyone can impersonate, except for proving one's identity by displaying a sigil like the Priests?"
"That's right. Logically, it is. But sorcerers are a closed group. They are too eager for knowledge, so they are wary of outsiders and don't share their knowledge well even among themselves."
That's why there are so few sorcerers, she continued.
"Even if you compiled the names of all the sorcerers in history into a book, it would only fill one volume. Do you know what that means?"
"Do they have some kind of family tree?"
"Yes, they do."
Fritz made an absurd expression.
"It's in the city of sorcerers. Well... let's skip this since it's a long story. Anyway, this place can confirm the name of Oxana, but there's no way to verify whether I'm her disciple or not."
The reason for using Oxana Narses's name was simple: she was dead. She had died not long ago, so no one knew of her death. Even if she impersonated her disciple, how could they verify the truth?
Any residence of a certain size had a stronghold of sorcerers, and to enter this place, one had to prove that they were a sorcerer.
"Then should I use a false name as well?"
"No. Fritz, you just pretend to be my attendant. If they still have doubts after checking the lineage, they'll also check your skills."
Roberta pointed to the path they had come through.
"You didn't clearly feel the flow of mana coming here, did you? That means you don't meet the standard. It means you can feel mana and manipulate it, but not enough to call yourself a sorcerer."
A human who has received the Infant Sacrament can feel mana regardless of talent, and if they try to manipulate mana, they can reach a certain level.
As Fritz had asked before, if anyone who could use a little magic was called a sorcerer, the whole world would have to be seen as full of sorcerers.
Therefore, the group claiming to be sorcerers set a standard for sorcerers. The flow of mana that Roberta felt in front of the mansion was one of those standards.
Fritz scratched the back of his head.
"I've heard that I have some talent, but I'm ashamed."
"It's okay. It's because you haven't learned enough yet."
The boy did not fully feel the flow. He seemed to have gotten a glimpse of it, but not enough to follow the flow and come here. He had talent, but his training was lacking.
Roberta smiled and lightly patted the boy's back.
Soon, the front door opened with the words, "Come in."
#
The moment they stepped into the hallway past the front door, goosebumps rose on their skin. A chill arose. It was summer outside, with the scorching sun beating down, but it was cool inside.
It was not a natural phenomenon. Roberta felt a strong flow of mana. Just as the dragon Narvakayani on the Ice Peninsula called for spring in the snow-covered peninsula, the manager of the mansion had called for autumn in the middle of summer.
"Come this way."
Following the guide, they passed through the hallway and entered the hall. Quite a few people gathered in the spacious hall. More than thirty people were talking, with a table laden with refreshments in the center of the hall.
"There are quite a few. I didn't expect there to be this many."
"Are all the people here sorcerers?"
"Probably," Roberta replied, scanning the people.
Why are there so many sorcerers? Except for some of the servants, everyone seemed to be a sorcerer. Even considering that the Priest's summoning had made the country easier for sorcerers to operate in, she thought there were too many.
"Don't worry about it." Roberta told Fritz in a low voice, then went to the table and picked up a drink. "Just stay by my side. As long as you don't stray, no one will say anything."
Soon, a woman approached and asked abruptly,
"I heard you're a disciple of Oxana?"
She glanced at the guide. It seemed he had told her.
"Yes, that's right. Who are you?"
"Adeline Giuno."
She repeated the name Giuno in her mind. She had never heard the name Adeline before, but she had heard of Giuno. It was the name of one of the Five Sages, like Narses.
In the customs of sorcerers, using the name of the Five Sages as a surname, rather than the teacher's name, meant that one's achievements surpassed the teacher's, and no one other than the Five Sages could be one's teacher.
"Didn't Oxana tell you about me?"
"No. I've never heard of you. What's your relationship?"
"Just think of me as a friend."
A friend?
Adeline's appearance looked to be about Roberta's age.
Roberta had witnessed Oxana Narses, who had a youthful appearance, return to the appearance of a wrinkled old woman as she faced death.
You shouldn't judge a sorcerer's age by their appearance. Slowing down or hiding aging was a basic skill for sorcerers, and sorcerers were the most numerous among those who had pursued immortality.
Could someone who had reached the level of using the name of the Five Sages as their surname and called Oxana a friend be Roberta's age? Perhaps she was well over a hundred years old.
"Oxana didn't come with you?"
"Yes. My teacher said she was busy." Roberta watched Adeline's expression change. "I came to attend the royal wedding in her place."
"Came to attend in her place? The royal wedding?"
Adeline narrowed her eyes.
"Why are you doing that?"
"No... then that's fortunate. One less competitor."
Roberta gave her a questioning look.
"The position in the court is vacant right now. Do you know what that means?"
A position in the court is vacant? Roberta's expression hardened. The position in the court that sorcerers spoke of referred to the king's advisor, the court sorcerer.
Therefore, the advisor being vacant meant that the court sorcerer had died or been expelled. Because people rarely give up their power on their own.
"I know what it means, but what happened?"
"He was old. It wouldn't have been strange if he had left at any time."
Adeline shrugged and spoke as if it were nothing, but Roberta did not relax her expression. A corner of her heart felt uneasy. It could be a coincidence, but the timing was strange.
After talking for a long time, Adeline suddenly frowned, looking over Roberta's shoulder.
"...That human came too."
Turning around, two men were entering the hall. Adeline glared at the man who looked to be in his forties.
The middle-aged man was talking to another group wearing wide-brimmed hats, but he felt her gaze and turned his head.
"Adeline? You came too?"
Then, saying something similar to her, he frowned in the same way.
"I came first. Don't have any vain expectations and go back."
"Ha, if we were doing things in order of arrival, there would be more than one or two things you should have handed over to me, has your memory already faded?"
The middle-aged man shook his head and tried to avoid the situation. "Don't mind him." He urged the man who accompanied him to walk on.
"Who's that? Who is he treating so respectfully?"
Adeline pointed to the companion. The middle-aged man replied that she didn't need to know, but when Adeline persistently asked, he clicked his tongue and replied, "Lanche Kaspers."
When she heard the name, she tilted her head, asking, "What?" It seemed to be a name and surname she had never heard before.
Roberta watched the man named Lanche Kaspers.
'Who is he?'
He was wearing a wide-brimmed hat, and the front edge of the brim was drooping, covering his face up to his nose. And there was a beard below his nose, and his hair was gray, falling to his shoulders.
Roberta almost let out an "Ah" without realizing it, but she swallowed it down. Fritz also made a sound of swallowing his breath behind her. He was following Gapier up the stairs in the center of the hall, but he slowed his pace and turned to look at the two of them.
Lanche Kaspers was Ulrich. His usual neat appearance was nowhere to be found. If he hadn't turned around, and had covered his face with the brim lowered and remained silent, Roberta would not have easily recognized his disguise.
He nodded slightly and continued up the stairs.
"······."
The two of them stared blankly at the stairs even after Ulrich had disappeared upstairs. After a long time, they returned to the Meyer family's mansion.
#
Ulrich did not return even in the evening.
The next day, a little after noon, he returned to Meyer's mansion. Roberta and Fritz, who were having lunch, sat at the table and greeted him.
"Were you eating?"
He said that and sat in the chair opposite Roberta. Holding a piece of bread in his right hand, Roberta examined him. His attire was as neat as usual. His hair was black, he had no beard, and he was not wearing a hat.
He looked no different from usual, to the point where she wondered what the figure she had seen in the sorcerer's hall the day before had been. He held up a teacup filled with Songhwa tea, receiving the gazes of the two.
"I imagine you have many questions."
"Ah... yes. I do."
She put down the wheat bread and asked,
"Why did you look like that yesterday?"
"If it's about the disguise, it's because the wedding is imminent."
Ulrich explained that people were flocking from all over, and he was being careful because there might be people who recognized his face. At least until the wedding, he had decided to use a pseudonym.
"You were very skilled. It seems you've disguised yourself often."
Ulrich drank his tea, saying that he had no choice.
"There were many cases where it was futile to change my name if I didn't change my appearance. That's the result of those experiences."
"You don't magically alter your appearance?"
"Unfortunately, I don't have that talent."
"Is that so?"
She tilted her head.
Saying he didn't have the talent sounded like he couldn't directly use transformation magic. Then, asking another sorcerer to change his appearance?
The question did not come out of her mouth. There was no way he hadn't tried it. She could imagine it. Just as the wound disappeared as if time had been reversed, the changed appearance would have returned to its original form.
"······."
The dragon Narvakayani living on the Ice Peninsula had referred to him as a human who neither aged nor died. That should be called immortality or eternal life, but Roberta thought of fixation.
She had a hunch that it was fixed at the moment the body was granted an endless life, and that was why the changed appearance immediately returned to its original form.
After a while, Roberta opened her mouth again.
"What kind of name is Lanche Kaspers?"
"It's a name I received when I was in Ditmarsken."
Ditmarsken? It was a name from a much shorter time ago than she had expected.
"As you can tell from the surname, the person who gave me that name is a sorcerer. Do you remember what I said about Gallua, who summoned monsters not long ago? There are several sects that are doctrinally opposed to Cormilius."
"You said they were heretics called separatists or non-deists..."
"You remember."
With a look of disbelief, she turned her gaze to him.
"The sorcerer Kaspers who gave me the name Lanche is that non-deist."