Chapter 213: Persuasion

“How dare you bring that up in front of me!”

Unlike before, Heger was now clearly enraged, glaring at Jun and shouting furiously.

Fortunately, Jun had cast a soundproofing spell beforehand. Had he not, Heger’s booming voice would have echoed throughout the entire mansion.

I expected this, but his reaction is definitely intense.

The idea for this plan had first occurred to Jun on the day of his initial presentation.

Heger.

Jun had also known him as an NPC from the game.

After Laness’s death in the game, he was the one who most fervently persuaded the mages to participate in the war.

This memory had surfaced only much later.

It was understandable, though. Unlike what one might assume, Heger hadn’t been a major character in the game.

He had appeared only in a few lines of text, stating that mages joined the war and that Heger had played a part in that decision.

I don’t remember the detailed story, but I do recall that Heger later became a playable character.

Not a heroic character. He was more of a minor NPC, so minor that he didn’t even have a proper illustration.

Moreover, he was unlocked in the mid-to-late stages of the game, and even then, he was nothing more than an ordinary sixth-circle mage.

Naturally, his specs were too mediocre to make him viable in combat.

Most players paid him little attention.

Which made sense. Mages were expensive to use in the game, and even when players hired them, they usually went for the more combat-oriented NPCs from the Laness Magic Tower.

In any case, once Jun recalled who Heger really was, he contacted Chairlse using the World Tree’s Essence to gather more information.

Thankfully, Chairlse returned with data fairly quickly. Among it, Jun found something rather intriguing.

He was said to have been deeply shocked by his master’s death.

To this day, he still visited his master’s grave on the same date every year.

And then, the path he took in the game as a mage…

When he recalled all of that, it became clear. Heger wasn’t just blindly stubborn. He was someone who, more than anyone, deeply cared about the future of mage society… he just had the wrong approach.

If I can somehow persuade him… he might become a powerful ally in the future.

The Imperial family was preparing for war.

Which meant that soon, a crisis could erupt that Jun and his companions alone wouldn’t be able to handle.

If we wait until that happens to start recruiting allies, it’ll be far too late.

That’s why Jun had to persuade this middle-aged mage in front of him to accelerate the mages’ involvement in what was coming.

With that thought in mind, he smiled even more boldly and said shamelessly,

“Sir Heger, I noticed that you’ve engraved the lightning attribute into your Circle.”

“What?”

Heger’s eyebrows twitched in annoyance. Jun had suddenly veered off-topic from the thesis, and the shift irritated him even more.

“As for me, I had engraved fire into my Circle. Though it wasn’t entirely by choice.”

“…What are you saying?”

Being someone with political instincts, Heger quickly picked up on Jun’s wording…it was in the past tense.

‘Had engraved’? So he doesn’t have it anymore?

That’s when he remembered. Jun had wielded lightning magic as if it were second nature.

Even if it was just lower-tier spells…

It had been too precise, too refined.

Don’t tell me… he actually succeeded in removing the attribute from his Circle?

“That’s impossible…”

He wanted to say that.

But Heger was still a sixth-circle mage. And however narrow-minded he might be, he wasn’t foolish enough to deny clear evidence right in front of him.

“Still, even if that’s true… how could something like that be…”

To Heger, separating an attribute from one’s Circle wasn’t just taboo. It was something no one would think of.

Not merely due to prejudice or dogma.

The research on detaching elemental attributes from Circles…

It closely resembled the work once pursued by his late master…the one who had died for that very idea.

“There’s no way something like that is…”

“It is possible.”

“…Proof?”

“I can show you, if you’d like.”

Jun immediately summoned fire and water imbued with [Flame Bloom] and [Light Drain] into both of his hands.

He wasn’t casting a sixth-circle spell or anything of the sort.

All he had done was draw out and manifest two opposing elemental forces.

And yet even though it was something so seemingly simple, Heger’s eyes widened as if they were about to tear open.

“What… have you imbued into the elements?”

“Imagination.”

To imbue one’s intent or imagination into an element and alter its nature—

That was something only possible when the element had been engraved into a Circle.

Yet Jun had done it with both elements and directly opposing ones at that.

Despite their natural incompatibility, the two elemental forces summoned by Jun didn’t clash or attempt to devour each other in the slightest.

It was only possible because they were under Jun’s complete and precise control.

“…How is something like that even possible?”

“In my case, I was only able to do it thanks to my innate constitution and a number of fortunate encounters. But as I said before…while others may not reach this exact point, it is a realistic possibility.”

“So that’s why you brought this thesis to me?”

“Exactly.”

Perhaps because of how deeply shocked he was, Heger now looked at the thesis not with anger, but with a much more subdued expression or rather, one full of pain.

***

A master who took in a street beggar boy out of pure kindness.

Though his temper was rough much like other mages and sometimes his hands were quicker than his words…

He was the one who taught him magic, and more importantly, the one who rejoiced when Heger absorbed and understood that knowledge.

How happy he had looked.

But that master’s research had been rejected by the mage society.

“Where Did Modern Magic Begin?”

At some point, the master had come to recognize the rigidity creeping into the mage community.

So he began his research in an attempt to fix that very problem.

He analyzed everything that might hinder a mage’s growth, dissected it, and tried to uncover the root causes.

And one of those causes—

Was the elemental attributes embedded into the Circle itself.

Most mages considered it an honor to have elemental attributes embedded into their Circle.

If that’s still true today, how much more so must it have been in the past?

But his master’s thesis directly denied that idea. Naturally, he was met with scorn from countless mages.

No one accepted his thesis anywhere, and when even most of his business connections were severed—

The master left on a long journey, leaving only his disciple behind.

And I inherited that path.

Heger fell into despair.

With his knowledge alone, there was no way to revive his master’s thesis and share it with the world.

It was an impossible task.

And in the meantime, Heger had been broken in many ways.

“It was because I clung to the impossible that I ended up in ruin!”

So one must dream of what is possible.

That’s what it means to be human.

Otherwise, they’ll end up broken.

Such twisted thinking had taken root inside him.

“But if this is actually possible…”

And the master who, in the end, couldn’t prove it and took his own life…

“Ah…”

Something hot rolled down his cheek.

Tears….tears he thought had long since dried up, ever since the day his master died and he gave up on his thesis.

“Uh…”

And Jun was flustered.

Wait, it was this serious?

He had known a fair bit about Heger.

That his love and respect for his master ran deep.

But this wasn’t what Jun had expected.

He had simply thought that if he could prove the master’s thesis wasn’t wrong, Heger might finally let go of some of his narrow-mindedness…nothing more than that.

I didn’t think it would be this dramatic.

For a long while, Heger wept sorrowful tears, gently touching and holding his master’s thesis.

And once he had finally calmed down a little—

Jun spoke again.

“That thesis was one Lady Laness had read in the past as well. She had similar thoughts back then, and she even said she gave it a try once.”

“And?”

“She failed. But recently, with my case emerging, she began delving into that thesis again.”

“Is there any progress?”

“To some extent, yes.”

Even his master, who had dedicated his entire life to it, hadn’t been able to solve it and now Laness had?

“All of that just because of you?”

“Well, it’s Lady Lanes we’re talking about.”

“That’s… true.”

Who could ever hope to keep up with the thoughts of someone called a genius among geniuses?

But that wasn’t what mattered.

What mattered was that a seventh circle mage was now paying serious attention to his master’s thesis.

“And a big factor was that her line of thinking shifted.”

“Her thinking?”

“Yes. The Circle system is still the most standard method, isn’t it? So the research had always been centered around mages who had already reached a certain level of proficiency…”

But recently, Laness had shifted focus entirely to those just beginning to learn magic….apprentices who hadn’t even formed their first circle yet.

And surprisingly, the once-blocked path had started to open up.

“So now, she’s been gathering related data.”

“Just the Laness Tower alone won’t be enough, will it?”

“No, not really.”

The general image of mages was that they were money-hungry monsters and sadly, that was mostly true.

After all, every form of research required funding.

So those who aspired to become mages were usually nobles’ children or at least from wealthy families.

Naturally, most of them preferred the mainstream teachings of the Conventional Mage Society rather than anything from the other towers.

And the Lanes Tower was no exception to that.

In fact, it was often actively disliked.

Even if it was run directly by the seventh circle mage, Laness herself.

Joining the Laness Tower meant learning how to apply magic for combat purposes and that meant facing life-threatening battles in the Blackout.

“So, is that why you came to me? To take in the apprentices we’re training here?”

“That’s not exactly it. Once the thesis is published, it doesn’t matter where it’s used, does it? Lady Laness has never tried to restrict that kind of thing.”

How long had he even known Laness to be speaking on his behalf like this?

But what Jun said was, in fact, true.

Laness had never placed any restrictions on how other mages used the theses published under her name.

Only one condition…if they were ever used for evil, she would make sure they were punished.

“Hoo…”

Heger, who had been listening up to that point, seemed to fall into deep thought for a moment….then suddenly looked down at his hands in surprise.

Before he knew it, they had started to show faint wrinkles, just like his master’s hands once had.

The hands that had once held those of a little beggar who had now risen to this position.

It was all thanks to his master.

Having made up his mind, he spoke without hesitation.

“Personally, I can help. But I can’t change the stance of the Conventional Mage Society.”

“I understand that much.”

Even that alone was more than enough to be grateful for.

After all, people are creatures of habit. There’s even a saying that sudden change can kill a man.

Changing isn’t easy.

And yet, Heger had set aside his long-held stubbornness, even if only on a personal level, to offer his help.

According to the information, Heger is criticized a lot within the society, but just as many mages are loyal to him.

There were even reports that he would sometimes hide his identity and visit orphanages to seek out children with magical potential and bring them back with him.

Having this man as an ally was practically the same as pulling in a whole faction of the mage society to their side.

And it’s not like I was planning to ask him to look into the Heavenly Church or anything right now.

This was merely planting a seed for the future.

And Heger would be the first seed in that field.

He would grow strong and become a great help.

It’s possible.

If the Laness Tower had his back and he had theirs in return nothing was out of reach.

So for now… this is enough.

With that, Jun stepped out of Heger’s room.

He felt more than satisfied, thinking it was already a major success.

But the next day, Jun realized he had been wrong.

I didn’t expect to land such a big catch here.

The closing banquet on the final day.

“Nice to meet you all. I’m Endo, honored to serve as an elder of the Conventional Mage Society.”

Endo.

One of the few mages who had reached the seventh circle and also the person in charge of the mage society’s external affairs.

As he appeared, Jun’s eyes lit up.

***

The closing banquet of the Mage Assembly was a significant event, even for mages who weren’t part of the Conventional Mage Society.

Even the mages who had been harshly criticized by Heger throughout the conference now wore bright expressions and that was all thanks to the arrival of Ran.

Mage Ran.

As someone in charge of external affairs within the Conventional Mage Society, he had a remarkable talent for securing funding for research from various sources.

In other words, even mages outside the Conventional faction had a chance.

The problem is that those bastards pocket most of it.

Still, for mages, that chance alone was a career milestone and a valuable opportunity to make a name for themselves.

And once that name got out, they could attract private investors and begin new research.

Naturally, everyone was doing their best to catch Ran’s attention.

And Ran, more than anyone, understood that fact all too well.

Tsk tsk… judging by that look on his face, he’s quite pleased with himself.

Jun kept his eyes fixed on Ran.

Ran.

The man who had shown a faint killing intent toward Jun during his duel with Heger.

Without the evil spirit orb, I can’t even be sure if that guy’s really connected to the Heavenly Church.

At a glance, he didn’t seem like someone devoted to the cult but rather a man simply content with his current position.

Though he does seem to have talent…

That’s why Jun needed certainty.

And the key to that certainty was none other than Ran’s teacher, the man with full authority over all investments.

The seventh circle Archmage, Endo.

“There you are.”

Jun’s eyes grew cold as he spotted Endo among the crowd of mages.

Seventh circle Archmage Endo. That man had swallowed the evil spirit orb.