Jefrin was always plagued by a sense of inferiority.
It was because Levian, another royal wizard, was always beside him.
If Jefrin was a genius born once in a hundred years, Levian was a once-in-a-thousand-years prodigy.
No matter how hard he struggled, Jefrin could never surpass Levian.
Even when others said Jefrin was on a similar level as Levian, it only disgusted him.
Levian and Jefrin were not on a level where comparison was possible.
Jefrin knew this better than anyone.
Yet, he kept trying.
To surpass Levian, to reach his achievements.
His inferiority complex drove Jefrin to grow.
He stayed up nights researching, producing numerous research achievements.
Thus, he became a great wizard revered by the empire's wizards.
However, as he continued to burn the midnight oil and push his body to the limits, it was inevitable that he wouldn't remain healthy.
Jefrin started to fall ill with various diseases, and as he aged, his condition progressively worsened.
Just as Jefrin's health began to deteriorate, Levian disappeared.
Neither the empire, Jefrin, nor anyone else knew why Levian had vanished.
With Levian gone, Jefrin took the top position as the royal wizard.
There was no longer anyone among the royal wizards who could be compared to Jefrin.
When such a situation finally arrived, it felt utterly hollow.
He had always strived to surpass Levian, but in the end, he didn't surpass him with his own abilities but reached his position for other reasons.
After Levian's disappearance, Jefrin's health continued to decline.
He could barely use magic properly, and even getting up became difficult.
As his condition worsened, the empire suggested he retire.
Given Jefrin's physical state, he couldn't even continue his research, let alone other duties, so he was advised to await death comfortably in the outskirts of the empire.
It was essentially an exile.
Jefrin could not object to this.
He had no one around him.
Not a single student, which any skilled wizard was supposed to have, nor any family member.
Jefrin had always lived for himself, focusing solely on his growth.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})Therefore, when he became old and sick, there was no one around to speak for him.
Jefrin was sent away to the outskirts of the empire without a word.
Beside him, he only had the great fortune he had amassed during his time as a royal wizard.
But he couldn't use the money properly.
Jefrin, always absorbed in his research, didn't know how to indulge in luxury.
He just bought a small cabin on the outskirts of the empire and hired someone to take care of his illness.
Jefrin, unlike the end befitting a great wizard, died alone and forlorn in the outskirts of the empire.
As he was about to face his end, Jefrin encountered Aryandor.
When Jefrin met him, Aryandor was just a teenager in his late teens.
It was Aryandor who saved his life.
He rejuvenated Jefrin's aging body with time magic, a spell Jefrin had never seen in his life.
However, Jefrin was not completely revived.
He regained his younger body, but was still afflicted with various illnesses.
Additionally, the state of his mana remained unchanged.
Though he appeared younger on the outside, the condition of his insides could not defy his age.
Jefrin's life was briefly extended, but he couldn't solve the fundamental problem.
It was then that Jefrin learned about the magic of immortality, which necromancers and Levian had been researching.
Hearing about this magic sparked various thoughts in him.
Could he surpass Levian if he continued to live?
He could achieve the lifelong goal he had held.
Jefrin felt hope.
Thus, he joined the Rebels.
He helped Aryandor, who had saved him, striving to continue living.
However, as time passed, Jefrin began to give up on his goal.
The magic that promised eternal life turned out to be nothing but an illusion.
The research was incomplete, and Levian, who had been conducting it, had disappeared, causing the flame of hope to slowly extinguish.
So, Jefrin changed his goal.
He decided to give his all to the Rebels.
To help Aryandor until his death.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})It was during this resolve that he met Evan.
Evan, steeped in inferiority and seemingly on the verge of breaking at the slightest touch, reminded Jefrin of himself.
Jefrin felt a sense of kinship.
He had looked at the world through similar eyes as Evan since his youth.
That's why he tried to bring Evan into the Rebels.
It was merely out of sympathy.
Jefrin thought if he had met Aryandor a little earlier, instead of trying to surpass Levian, he could have had a different goal and his life would be different now.
He intended to give Evan a new purpose, not to lead him down the same path as himself.
Jefrin dismounted his horse and spoke to the assassins beside him.
"We're almost there. We've agreed to meet at the cabin near the forest. Hide nearby."
"Understood."
Jefrin flipped his hood over his face to conceal it.
The assassins dispersed into the surroundings, hiding their presence, and Jefrin slowly walked towards the cabin ahead.
Inside the cabin was Evan.
Like Jefrin, Evan was also wearing his hood.
"It's been a while, Evan."
"It has been a while."
"Did you have any trouble getting here?"
"Fortunately, I was able to escape unnoticed."
Students couldn't leave the academy at night unless it was for family or clan matters.
Therefore, Jefrin had forged documents in advance and sent them to the academy, facilitating Evan's escape at night.
Thanks to that, Evan was able to leave easily.
"Then, let's get moving."
"Understood."
As Jefrin and Evan were about to leave the cabin, Evan's hood was slightly lifted, revealing his eyes.
"…?"
A firm gaze.
These were not the eyes Jefrin had seen when he first met Evan.
They were not filled with despair and inferiority, but were just ordinary, steady eyes.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})"Wait a moment."
Jefrin reached out his hand towards Evan.
"First, I need to confirm if it's really you. Take off that hood."
At Jefrin's request, Evan frowned.
He was puzzled by this sudden demand.
Wondering if taking off the hood would cause any significant trouble, Evan flipped it back.
"…What?"
This Evan looked completely different from the last time Jefrin had seen him.
There was no trace of the despair-ridden, motivation-less feeling or the eyes filled with anger due to inferiority.
Instead, they looked perfectly ordinary.
'Did I see him wrong that time?'
That seemed impossible.
Even if his current physical state wasn't normal, he wouldn't make such a mistake.
So, were the eyes he saw back then an act?
That didn't make sense either.
The eyes of Evan he had seen before couldn't be faked.
They were fundamentally different, something that couldn't be found in an ordinary person.
Jefrin asked,
"Who are you?"
"…What do you mean by that?"
Evan expressed his confusion at Jefrin's words.
His appearance hadn't changed; he was still himself.
He couldn't understand the intent behind Jefrin's question.
Jefrin quickly judged the situation.
Was there a reason to take this now-ordinary-looking Evan with him?
In terms of ability, Evan was a guy Aryandor had to be wary of, so there was no need for suspicion there.
But, could this guy betray the Rebels?
Could he truly become one with the Rebels?
That was a different matter.
The Rebels were a group of somewhat broken individuals.
They lacked or missed something that normal people didn't.
That's what allowed them to do anything for their cause.
Even things that ordinary people couldn't imagine, they could do without hesitation.
'I was foolish.'
He had felt a sense of kinship after briefly seeing Evan and made a foolish decision.
Evan was described as a great threat by Aryandor.
Instead of trying to recruit Evan as an ally, Jefrin should have come to kill him.
That would have been the right decision.
He felt pathetic for feeling a sense of kinship based on one encounter and trying to take him in as an ally.
Taking this guy with him could only lead to a high chance of betrayal.
An ordinary person would not just stand by after seeing the actions of the Rebels.
It would only endanger them.
Nevertheless, Evan was a capable individual, so Jefrin knew he had to kill him right there.
There was no reason to leave a potential future problem unresolved.
"Evan, I'm sorry to have called you out here, but this is where it ends."
Jefrin started to mobilize his mana.
Evan's eyes widened at this.
“Gasp…!”
Quickly, Evan drew his sword from his waist.
Boom!
As soon as Evan drew his sword, a huge explosion occurred.
The cabin shattered into pieces under the force of Jefrin's magic.
“Ugh… what’s happening, all of a sudden…?”
Evan emerged from the explosion.
He hadn't done anything that could have been perceived as betrayal.
Yet, the sudden attack left him no time to react.
Already at a disadvantage without his original sword, which had been destroyed in the joint assessment, Evan suffered burns on his arm, unable to use its magic-nullifying ability.
“He's still not down.”
Jefrin slowly emerged from the rubble of the destroyed cabin, a fierce killing intent swirling in his eyes.
“Why are you doing this all of a sudden?”
“It’s simply because you’ve become useless.”
Evan glared at Jefrin.
The last time he saw him, Jefrin had seemed almost childlike.
His actions were light, but now, he was completely different.
Although the face under the hood looked like a girl, the eyes were empty.
They were the eyes of someone who had been through dozens of battlefields.
“Cough…”
Jefrin, approaching Evan as if to kill him, suddenly clutched his heart.
“Again, this…”
‘This is my chance…’
Evan, clutching his burned arm, turned and ran.
“Catch him.”
Though it was a faint voice, the assassins responded and moved.
They began to chase after Evan.
Evan, fleeing from the assassins, used magic.
“Nature's Healing…!”
Fortunately, the cabin had been in the woods.
Blue light emanated from the trees in the forest, converging on Evan.
The light gradually began to heal his arm.
“Cough…”
However, Evan was still not fully recovered from his internal injuries.
Before his arm was completely healed, his mana refused to cooperate.
Pain as if his intestines were twisted assaulted him.
But he couldn’t stop; standing still meant certain death.
Although things hadn't gone as planned, escaping the area was his priority.
As he ran, he lost sight of the assassins and Jefrin.
“Are they hiding?”
Under normal circumstances, he might have used the mana of the forest to locate them, but he couldn’t afford to do that now.
Unless it was to block an attack, using mana felt too risky.
“Evan.”
Just then, a voice called out.
“…Rudy Astria!”
A blonde man emerged in the distance, revealing himself.
It was Rudy Astria.
Seeing him, Evan stopped in his tracks.
"It's serious, Rudy Astria. Jefrin suddenly attacked me."
Evan quickly explained the situation.
However, Rudy, without saying a word, walked towards him.
Evan felt something was off.
"…Rudy Astria?"
He scrutinized the figure before him.
There was a sense of discordance about it.
Evan swiftly raised his sword.
"…An illusion?"
The figure was unmistakably Rudy Astria, but it lacked Rudy's distinctive aura.
Despite wearing gloves on his hands and the same attire Evan had seen earlier, something about him didn't feel quite right.
Especially the way he moved, stepping silently and cautiously, resembled the gait of an assassin.
Evan recognized this manner of walking, as it was similar to how Yeniel moved.
The assassin disguised as Rudy Astria pulled out a dagger and threw it at Evan.
Evan deflected the dagger with his sword and started running again.
‘Are they showing me a figure that I would feel safe around?’
The applications of illusion magic are endless.
It can make the caster appear as anything they desire or show different figures to different observers.
First, he needed to get away.
The plan he had made with Rudy was to attack when they were relaxed and mounted on their horses.
Since an explosion had just occurred, they would surely come this way.
Evan needed time until Rudy arrived.
So, he ran.
He ran to buy time.
A few minutes into his run, something felt off.
He kept feeling like he was going in circles.
‘Is this also illusion magic...? Did they cast it over the entire forest?’
Continuously seeing the same surroundings, his sense of direction became vague.
It was hard to tell whether he was really going in circles or just imagining it.
“Ugh…”
He needed to break the illusion.
Evan tried to recalibrate his disoriented sense of direction by manipulating mana.
“Evan.”
“Evan.”
“Evan.”
Before he could use the magic, he saw around a dozen figures of Rudy Astria around him.
‘Is this also an illusion...? Or is it making the assassins appear differently?’
The confusion compounded, further disorienting Evan.
“Evan… You must die.”
“Evan, you're not needed.”
Figures with Rudy Astria's face uttered strange words as they walked towards him.
“Ha…”
Evan let out a laugh at the sight.
"You guys have got it all wrong."
Seeing the face now, Rudy Astria's was indeed the most comforting to Evan.
But that didn’t mean Evan would be deeply hurt by hearing such words from Rudy Astria.
Having realized something during the joint assessment, Evan decided to break away from Rudy Astria and follow his own path.
Evan, determined to walk his own way, wouldn't be provoked if the real Rudy Astria said such things.
Not being greatly influenced by Rudy Astria and finding his own goals was Evan's way.
'I'll just face them.'
Evan looked at his adversaries with steady eyes and calmly manipulated his mana.
He charged at the figures of Rudy Astria with his sword in hand.
He wielded the sword enveloped in mana gathered from the forest.
He cut down the figure of Rudy Astria.
“Huh?”
But, unlike before, the figure resembling Rudy Astria was not an assassin.
Even as Evan cut through them, they disappeared like smoke, with no sense of impact.
However, not all were illusions.
Among the several figures of Rudy Astria, daggers flew towards him.
Amidst the illusion, there were real threats.
“Ugh…”
Evan did his best to fend off the daggers while cutting down the Rudy Astria figures.
But he couldn't keep it up indefinitely.
Thump─
“Ugh.”
Pain inflicted by the mana coursed through his body.
His movements were being hindered.
Evan doubled over in agony.
The assassins didn't miss this opportunity.
As Evan was about to collapse, they rushed in.
“Ha…”
As Evan felt multiple pains and saw them rushing in, he lifted his head in resignation.
Looking up, someone was falling from the sky, also bearing Rudy Astria's face.
“This is the end......”
“Evan.”
The Rudy Astria figure falling from the sky called out his name.
“You held up well.”
“Huh?”
The Rudy Astria figure from the sky moved his mana.
“Finger of the Demon.”
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