Chapter 108

[Quest: [Sub] Seek Out a Familiar Face]

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Mikhail checked the system message, then swept his gaze across the buildings rising around him.

Afternoon sunlight streamed down. Rows of glass windows hung veiled in white reflection, their interiors impossible to make out.

But plenty of eyes were undoubtedly watching the carriage procession from behind those panes.

The Guild Alliance Joint Suppression Campaign.

It was essentially an all-star showcase—an event for gauging the potential, depth, and promise of that year's rising talent and assigning each a value accordingly. Every move the participants made would become the gathered audience's chief topic of interest and conversation.

A familiar face, huh. There should be one person worth making contact with.

Mikhail picked up the bag beside him and stole a glance toward where Ethan stood.

A guild facility guide was shouting and gesturing, herding students into groups and leading them forward. Amid all of it, Ethan was being shoved along by his companions some distance away.

Better to let him follow the main storyline's flow for now.

Mikhail pulled his gaze away and headed for the lodging building. He planned to drop off his luggage, then get moving before the evening welcome reception began.

A little over an hour had passed.

Crunch. Crunch.

Mikhail walked along a path on the outskirts of the headquarters grounds.

The person he was going to meet wasn't used to crowds—they'd probably worn themselves out by now and were resting on a quiet patch of grass somewhere to settle their nerves.

Whether they'll recognize me… that's a separate problem.

Mikhail tilted his head back and recalled a moment from the past. Less than a semester ago, yet for some reason it felt like something from a distant memory.

["Colin, could you guide us down a different path? Preferably a shortcut through the common area this time."]

["Oh, o-okay. Y-yes! Follow me!"]

["Don't move a single step from here. Stay put until the situation's been sorted out."]

["…Okay."]

The moment Ethan's growth had first gone off track—the place Mikhail had gone to set the main storyline right. The boy who'd served as their guide in the Firefly Cavern. Colin.

By now, he should have been adopted by the dignitary from the scholarly city and brought along to spectate the campaign.

The quest says to seek out a familiar face. A proper reunion with Ethan can wait until later…

That was when a snarl lodged itself in his ear.

"—Senit, I presume."

The voice dripped with hostility. Mikhail stopped mid-step and turned around.

[Quest: [Sub] Seek Out a Familiar Face — Complete]

• Completion Reward: Shop Currency +1

Mikhail studied the figure beyond the fading message.

Pale blue-gray eyes like a thin veil of mist over water, and muted lavender hair.

It was Verte Fischer.

"I called out half-hoping I was wrong, but seeing that face—the spitting image of your father—it seems my guess was spot on."

Mikhail looked up at the voice seething with barely contained fury and weighed his next move.

The quest was done. He could ignore the man and walk away. Or he could trade a few words and see where things went.

After a moment's deliberation, he chose the latter.

The kind of anger Verte carried couldn't be snuffed out overnight. Better to stoke it and create cracks—blind spots born of obsession and tunnel vision.

And besides.

I have no intention of dodging a fight he's bringing to me.

Mikhail tilted his head and answered.

"Have you actually seen my father in person?"

"……"

"Well, even if you haven't, my father's quite the celebrity. Nothing you've said is exactly news to me."

Mikhail folded his arms and shrugged. Verte watched the display, then curled his lip into a sneer.

"Shameless to the bone—just what you'd expect from lowborn stock. Does the man who was robbed ever forget the face of his thief?"

Mikhail fired back without hesitation.

"You call reclaiming abandoned land and building it back up theft?"

"It was a strategic withdrawal. And your kind exploited the gap to—"

"A strategic withdrawal. So that's what you call retreating from the front lines ahead of your own people?"

"Don't act like you know anything! You're barely old enough to have blood dry behind your ears."

Verte spat the words and ground his teeth. The veins in his glaring eyes surged with a vicious, almost feral light.

"If your lot hadn't meddled—stirring up chaos on the front—we could've regrouped and struck back."

"……"

"Using your enemy's confusion and panic as a stepping stone to power. Cunning, vulgar wretches. You knew full well the burden your scheming would place on us, and you used it—!"

"Tch."

Mikhail cut him off with a sharp click of his tongue and raked his hair back. Sitting through a tirade drenched in self-pity was making the top of his head burn.

"I kept listening and listening, but this is too ridiculous to stomach any more."

Mikhail exhaled a breath as sharp as a shard of ice.

"Verte Fischer. You said it yourself—the guardians of the past were your family."

"……"

"Then you should've thrown yourselves into the fight. Laid everything on the line. Given every last thing you had to hold that ground—so your people's blood wouldn't stain the frozen wastes."

His voice cracked against Verte like fractures splitting across the frozen surface of a winter lake.

"Don't dress up cowardice as strategy. Don't live trapped inside a victim's fantasy. Verte Fischer. You'll never take back the North if you can't even face a single failure head-on."

Mikhail tugged the corner of his mouth and lifted his chin.

"Not that I'd ever hand it over, either."

"You—!"

Verte's face flushed a mottled red and purple in an instant. Capillaries flared across his bulging eyes, and a clear blue radiance bloomed in his clenched fist.

Mikhail gathered mana into his left hand immediately.

CRACKLE!

"Um… is something going on? I heard shouting."

The standoff shattered at the sound of someone approaching. A boy poked his head out from the bushes and cautiously asked what was happening.

The mana on both sides dissolved. Mikhail shifted his gaze from Verte to the boy.

FLASH!

[Quest: [Sub] Seek Out a Familiar Face]

• Reward: Shop Currency +1

Neatly pressed clothes and carefully combed hair.

But the gentle, unassuming eyes from their very first meeting—those hadn't changed one bit.

"…Colin."

Mikhail murmured the name, and Colin flinched.

"Huh. H-how do you know my name?"

"—Tch."

Verte clicked his tongue in irritation, shoved past Mikhail's shoulder hard enough to jolt him, and stopped beside him.

"I didn't expect a real conversation out of you to begin with. But that was even more pathetic than I imagined."

Verte bit down on his molars and muttered.

"Doesn't matter. I was going to crush you regardless."

Mikhail answered without turning, his gaze fixed straight ahead.

"If you can."

Verte brushed past him with long strides and was gone. Mikhail stood his ground, unmoving.

The air had gone rigid—compressed tight as packed permafrost.

But a stray gust of wind carried the distant clamor of voices like a breath of warmth, softening the atmosphere by degrees.

Mikhail slowly lowered his gaze.

"……"

Colin was visibly anxious, but he stood rooted to the spot all the same—doing his best not to let it show.

Mikhail took in the boy's composure and let his tone ease.

"Looks like you've found someone who sees your worth and knows how to bring it out."

"…Pardon?"

"I'm sorry about the cavern. For leaving without a word."

Colin's face twisted in confusion.

But as he turned the words over one by one, his eyes began to widen. A trembling voice spilled from his gaping lips.

"W-wait. No way. If you mean the cavern…"

Mikhail smiled at Colin and curled his fingers into a circle, holding them up to his eye.

FLASH!

[Quest: [Sub] Seek Out a Familiar Face — Complete]

• Completion Reward: Shop Currency +1

The moment the message appeared, Colin's astonished voice burst free.

"—Mr. Maxwell? You're Mr. Maxwell?!"

---

Meanwhile, at that very same hour.

The kingdom's North—where the mightiest forces held the line against powerful magical beasts dwelling in the brutal cold.

Beneath a gray sky lashed by driving snow.

A figure draped in a gray cloak, gripping a long staff, moved into the barracks. Each step carried them down the corridor and toward the central command office.

"……"

Sion Senit had been seated at his desk reviewing the front lines' status when he caught sight of the arrival and shot to his feet.

"…Lord Joseph!"

Joseph lowered his hood and offered Sion a faint smile, then pressed a finger to his lips.

A silent request to keep this quiet.

Sion swallowed his shock at once and asked in a low voice.

"You must be in terrible shape for a journey this far. What brings you all the way out here?"

Joseph flicked his fingers lightly. Silver script began to etch itself into the air before Sion's eyes.

[There's something I need to verify in person. Quick strike to the Astronomical Tower and back. Will you help?]

Sion hesitated briefly, then nodded and picked up the communication stone from the desk.

"…Maximum mobility. Escort formation around Lord Joseph. Assemble at Entrance Five—in secret."

Joseph left Sion's voice behind him and slipped out of the office, taking point down the long corridor.

Light footsteps began falling into step behind him, one after another.

WHOOOOSH—

Before long, Joseph stood at the entrance to a winter forest where white snowfall filled his vision layer upon layer.

The destination lay at the forest's center—the ruins site.

Joseph bent and tapped his ankle. A white formula inscribed itself over the spot his hand had touched.

KEEEN.

A clear tone of resonance rang out, and Joseph launched forward.

Matching his near-flying pace, Sion and five adjutants fell into formation around him, running in escort.

GRRRRRR.

A bone-chilling roar erupted as snow-field bears—four golden eyes apiece—emerged from every direction and charged.

Razor-hooked claws danced toward the throats of Joseph's party in a frenzy.

But Joseph didn't slow his pace for an instant. He swung the staff in his grip, and a formula traced itself along the arc of its motion before white lightning burst forth, piercing clean through the beasts' bodies.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

Torn flesh and twisted remains scattered across the white snowfield like petals strewn wide. The beasts kept coming.

But Joseph cut them down as effortlessly as slicing through paper, never once breaking stride.

KRRRRMMMM.

This time the rumble was something else entirely. And the shape that emerged bore no resemblance to the beasts before it.

Countless parts and gears interlocked, driven by formulas—a massive artificial construct in the shape of a great ape.

Joseph halted his staff and regarded the construct as a glow of mana kindled in its chest.

The construct was about to fire—

When the image of a celestial sphere traced itself across Joseph's watching eyes.

KEEEN!

It was instantaneous.

The spell Joseph launched tore through the construct's mana sphere like wet paper and struck the body behind it dead-center.

KA-KROOOM—!

The thunderclap repeated several times over.

At last, Joseph reached the center of the forest and stepped inside the Astronomical Tower, leaning like a ruin on the verge of collapse.

Sion and the adjutants who'd followed close behind filed in after him.

Past the dark corridor, the tower's interior gradually came into view.

"…Good lord."

One of the adjutants let slip a gasp the moment they stopped.

What greeted them was a central hall torn to shambles and a celestial measuring device smashed nearly in half.

Stains covered every surface—scattered as though someone had torn flower petals apart and flung them wide, or ripped the fins from a fish and left the shreds strewn across the floor. Deep violet residue, everywhere.

Joseph walked across the debris and stopped before the celestial device.

He knelt and placed his hand over the faint traces of a formula still clinging to the floor.

"……"

A brief silence passed.

Beneath the quickening pound of his own heartbeat, Joseph bit down on the inside of his lower lip and clenched the hand resting on the formula.

Those who move in the shadows have grown this powerful… What in the world has happened?