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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Xrecker
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“Who are you?”
I asked, taken aback by the black-haired girl who had spoken to me as if she knew me.
The girl slammed her white feather fan on the desk.
“You fool! How dare you not recognize your own master, even after all this time!”
“????”
What was going on?
I was momentarily confused, unable to process her words.
But I quickly regained my composure and asked,
“So, you’re saying you’re my master?”
“Yes.”
The girl nodded, tapping her fingers on the desk, a clear sign of her irritation.
Even her small habits were the same as my master’s. I was still skeptical, but I pressed on.
“The Lady Esmeralda I know is a white-haired old woman, well over 150 years old.”
The girl frowned, then explained,
“My body was reconstructed when I reached the seventh tier. My old body was too frail to contain such a vast amount of mana, so it was naturally replaced with a new one.”
“So, in martial arts novel terms, you’ve reverted to a youthful state?”
“To put it simply, yes.”
The conversation finally started to make sense, but I still found it hard to believe.
“Then, let me ask you one more thing.”
“What is it now?”
“What was the birthday present I gave you two years ago?”
A vein throbbed on the girl’s forehead.
“You’ve never given me a birthday present, you bastard.”
That reaction… was definitely her.
“Master!”
I quickly changed the subject, grabbing her hand with a dramatic flair.
“Your unworthy disciple has returned after a year and a half!”
“Yes, yes.”
My master patted my head, as if I were a well-behaved dog, then glanced at Dorothea and Vanessa.
“And who are they? They seem quite skilled.”
Dorothea, pushing her sunglasses onto her head, replied,
“Quattro Vageena.”
Vanessa, taking off her helmet, added,
“Janet.”
They were sticking to their aliases.
A wise decision, considering we weren’t alone. My master’s secretary was also present.
“We have guests. We should offer them some refreshments. Olivia.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
The blonde secretary bowed and went to the pantry.
My master rose from her desk and sat on the sofa, fanning herself with her white feather fan.
Seeing her like this, it was hard to believe she was my master.
I never would have imagined the stern, shrill-voiced old woman I knew was so beautiful in her youth.
As if reading my thoughts, my master grinned and crossed her legs.
“What? Still don’t believe I’m your master?”
“No, it’s not that. It’s just…”
“Hmph.”
I trailed off, and my master scoffed, then gestured to Dorothea and Vanessa.
“You two, don’t just stand there. Come and sit. You’re making me dizzy.”
“Ah, yes.”
Dorothea, surprisingly, obeyed without a word.
Her usual fiery temper was gone.
As soon as they sat down, the secretary returned with a tray of refreshments.
She placed them on the table and bowed, and my master dismissed her with a wave of her hand.
“You may go.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Click
The door closed, and a quiet silence filled the room. I sipped my tea and, glancing at my master, said,
“You got a new secretary.”
“Well, you were gone for over a year. I had to get a new one. I chose a bright, capable girl.”
“A wise decision. I can’t be your secretary forever.”
“Hmph. Flattery will get you nowhere.”
Despite her harsh words, the corners of her lips curled upwards in a faint smile.
This was the tsundere master I knew.
I nudged Dorothea and whispered,
“Doesn’t my master remind you of someone?”
“What, you bastard?”
Dorothea’s eyes narrowed, but she refrained from lashing out, likely because my master was present.
“Ahem, ahem.”
My master cleared her throat pointedly, and as I turned back to her, she asked, her expression serious,
“So, you’ve returned safely. What news do you bring? What happened to the Hero’s party?”
I hesitated.
Should I tell her that I had betrayed the Hero’s party, leading to their demise?
My master was like a grandmother to me.
My biological mother had died when I was young, and my father, instead of remarrying, had dedicated his life to raising me.
I had supported him once I was old enough, but that was beside the point.
After leaving home at fifteen to become a mage, I had lived with my master for nearly ten years.
We were practically family.
I trusted her. But this was a matter of pride.
She had sent me to support the Hero, and I had betrayed him. It was a difficult thing to confess.
After a moment of intense deliberation, I decided to be honest.
“The Hero’s party, except for me, has been wiped out. I betrayed them at the last moment.”
“Really? Good.”
“I’m sorry for disappointing you… wait, what did you just say?”
My master smiled and tapped my hand with her fan.
“I know you better than anyone. You may be rebellious, but you always think before you act. If you betrayed him, then the Hero must have been a fool.”
“Master…”
I looked at her, touched, and she shrugged, popping a pastry into her mouth.
“So, what did the Demon Lord offer you? You must have reached the end of your journey with the Hero if you met the Demon Lord.”
I scratched the back of my head.
“He offered me half the world if I helped him conquer it…”
My master burst out laughing.
“What?! World conquest?! Hahahaha! You and the Demon Lord are both fools!”
She laughed so hard that she had to cover her mouth with her fan.
“Is it that difficult?”
I asked, and she, wiping away a tear of laughter, nodded.
“Of course it is. Do you know how long it took for the human empire, at the height of its power, to be destroyed by the elves?”
“…No.”
There were few records of that era.
The history had been lost, along with the people who could have passed it down.
My master held up her fingers.
“Three days. It took only three days. And that was with a formal declaration of war, giving the civilians time to escape. The last emperor, blinded by his own power, challenged the elves of the Great Forest and had his capital reduced to dust.”
“Such a large-scale spell exists?”
“There’s one. An eighth-tier spell.”
My master pointed at the ceiling.
“Meteor Strike.”
I finally understood.
The elves had destroyed the empire by dropping a meteor on its capital.
It was a spell far more powerful than any nuclear bomb.
“So, there were eighth-tier mages among the elves three hundred years ago?”
My master shook her head.
“Probably not. There were seven Archmages among the elves at the time. They likely combined their powers to cast the spell.”
“Can they still use it?”
“I don’t know. Perhaps one of them died, or perhaps an eighth-tier elf has emerged and can now cast it alone.”
In other words, there was no way to know without experiencing it.
“Anyway, let’s not talk about the elves. We haven’t even conquered the human kingdom yet.”
“So you brought demons with you?”
“…You knew all along?”
My master smiled and pointed at Dorothea with her fan.
“This young lady is from the Ruby Tower. And the only young, sixth-tier witch I know is Dorothea, one of the Demon Lord’s Four Heavenly Kings.”
She then pointed at Vanessa.
“And I’ve seen this one before, from a distance. She’s the Dullahan who served the previous Demon Lord. I didn’t realize she was hiding such a beautiful face under that tin can helmet.”
My master’s observational skills were truly remarkable.
To deduce so much from a short conversation…
Dorothea and Vanessa clapped, and my master’s ego inflated.
“It was nothing.”
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