Reborn as the Head of the Stolen Mage Family

Chapter 58

I shot up from the bed.

The low, heavy, and familiar voice that had just come through the Tracker.

It was Furas.

[Thump, thump, thump…]

The sound of footsteps getting closer.

Marcel seemed to have forgotten to breathe from the shock.

In the end, it was Tares who spoke up first on Marcel's behalf.

[What brings Your Lordship to the training grounds at this hour?]

[I had business with you and came here because I was told you were at the Fifth Training Ground.]

[…….]

[But I didn't know you were here too, Marcel.]

[……!]

Marcel's breathing trembled.

He was properly flustered now, feeling fear in this situation.

It was understandable.

It meant Furas had heard everything he had just confessed to Tares.

Moreover, even the perceptive Tares hadn't noticed until Furas spoke.

Meaning.

Furas had deliberately hidden his presence and approached them.

[I hear your magic has become unstable recently. Have you spoken to your tutors?]

[Not yet… I have not told them.]

[Why not?]

[…….]

[Did you think it would naturally get better if the tail just disappeared?]

[Th-that is…….]

[Just as Commander Clifford said. Your judgment has not just been clouded by your inferiority complex, it has become pathetic. As the commander said, if you had a stronger will, there would be no problem in having a tail, would there?]

Furas mercilessly criticized Marcel.

As Tares had pointed out, the pleasantness he had shown before was a disguise.

Moreover, the way he subtly twisted Tares' words even gave the impression that he was checking the close conversation between Marcel and Tares.

In the end, Marcel couldn't answer at all.

Furas sent him up to his room with a displeased sigh.

As Marcel left the training ground, the voices of Furas and Tares grew more distant.

I, while flustered by the variable, calmly amplified the Tracker's power slightly.

And precisely so.

Since Furas had to be within its range, more precise magic control than ever was needed.

‘Got it.’

Finally, the voices of Furas and Tares began to be heard.

[…scheduled to arrive soon… so you and the First Knight Order will take charge of the escort… safely to the castle gate…….]

[If that happens, crossing the sea… the First Knight Order cannot be away from the family for that long…….]

[The family's affairs… taking the lead is the First Knight Order's duty…….]

[…I will… Please do not… get close to him… I advise you.]

The few lines of conversation that were barely caught soon became completely inaudible.

It was because Marcel had left the training ground and moved away.

Although I had only heard a tiny part of the conversation, I decided to be satisfied with this and deactivated the Tracker.

Most of the information was without context.

But one thing was clear.

The Kirhausen's First Knight Order would soon embark on a long journey to escort someone across the sea.

And Tares was quite wary of the person being escorted.

"I've gained quite a lot one way or another."

I lay down on the bed again and mulled over what I had found out.

The information needed to be looked into more detail, but one problem I had been pondering was definitely solved.

Tomorrow, I would have a private meeting with Sylvia.

***

The next day.

As expected, Shainborough was abuzz with the issue of Marcel's diminished magic.

Marcel, the tutors, and Ronan were summoned to the Magic Training Hall from the morning by Furas' order.

Marcel had to demonstrate magic in front of them with a stiff expression.

Shwaaaaaak- Boom-!

…Gooooooh… Crackle-!

The same magic, yet the power changed with every attempt.

Furas' expression hardened more than ever.

Shane and Sylvia, with their feet to the fire, anxiously suggested low-level spells.

"Ah, perhaps the 4-star magic is still unfamiliar, so it might be more unstable."

"That's right, young master! Let's try 2- and 3-star magic this time."

But the result was the same.

As disappointing results continued, a suffocating silence fell.

No one in the training hall dared to speak.

I listened to that silence through the Tracker.

A moment later, Furas' hardened voice was heard.

[We must resolve this before he returns to the academy.]

[…….]

[If he returns like this, the family's name will soon plummet to the ground.]

[Pl-please do not worry.]

[I will take responsibility and resolve it.]

A subtle instruction.

Followed by obedience in a trembling voice.

With that, Furas left the training hall with Ronan.

As soon as he left, Shane and Sylvia poured questions at Marcel.

Have you been feeling unwell recently?

Have you been sleeping properly?

Has there been anything that made you nervous, and so on.

But most of it was superficial, and the core question finally came at the very end.

[Are you… getting along well with Eddie without any problems?]

[…….]

Marcel hesitated for a moment.

But judging that it was pointless to choose his words since his father had already found out everything, he confessed the fact that he had been distancing himself from me.

The feeling of admitting his own inferiority complex towards Eddie must be miserable.

The two tutors comforted him and encouraged him with pleasant words.

But in truth, they were inwardly relieved.

Because the cause of his unstable magic wasn't something out of the blue, but coincided with what they had expected.

[I'll have to have a word with Eddie. I will warn him not to do anything that makes you uncomfortable, young master.]

[…….]

Marcel gave no reply to Sylvia's words.

His heart sank even more at the words 'warn Eddie'.

However, there was nothing he could do.

The tutors only moved according to his father's orders anyway.

***

A few hours later.

I was summoned to the library reserved for the next head of the family.

Waiting for me in the library was, as expected, not Shane but Sylvia.

Pretending to be worried about my body, which must have been strained by the previous day's experiment, she naturally started a conversation.

"I don't remember it well since I fainted at the end, but it was a very interesting experience. Above all, I was so proud to have been of help to the young master."

I replied according to the memory Sylvia had tried to implant at the end.

Sylvia, who had been wary due to the memory of the potion experiment, relaxed with a sense of satisfaction.

‘The mind control is perfectly in place, far from being shaken. There's no need to make him drink tea this time.’

She offered snacks, her purple eyes twinkling.

Along with that, the magic of Circe was slowly drawn up.

I swallowed the sweet snack and likewise drew up my magic.

"How is your life at the academy? It must have been satisfying to enter as an assistant and even become the vice president."

"I think it's a position I don't deserve. But since I'm in it, I plan to work hard."

It was a prelude to the actual mind control, but the words were heavily loaded.

Of course, I didn't bat an eye and acted with a dazed expression.

"Yes… you must work hard……."

And the moment Sylvia's voice became even more gentle.

A purple gleam flashed, and Circe's magic penetrated my mind.

But my Reverse was even faster.

Fwaat-!

"……!"

My magic reversed the mind control in an instant, following the path Sylvia's magic had tried to penetrate.

Sylvia's eyes were quickly dyed the same golden color as mine.

It was an all too easy victory.

Compared to a month or so ago, I had become much stronger, and Sylvia's magic was less refined than before.

I relaxed my body slightly and delved into Sylvia's memories.

‘It's going smoothly, as expected. This time, I need to check from the deepest parts.’

Going back and back, to the oldest flow.

I soon reached the scene of her first memory, which was filled with darkness.

‘If one were human, the first memory would be inside the mother's womb. But if it's another being that is not human…….’

Crack- Crackle-

After that, the flow went as I had suspected.

A large crack appeared in the darkness Sylvia was seeing, and light seeped through the crack.

As if a chick was breaking out of an egg, a completely different aspect from a human birth unfolded.

The darkness broke into pieces and fell away, and her vision brightened.

"She's out of the mold. Her condition is perfect!"

The first things she saw were mages in green capes, rejoicing as they looked at the newly born Sylvia.

As expected, Sylvia was a doll crafted from Circe's mana and materials.

A homunculus.

I observed the green-caped mages checking Sylvia's condition.

They were neither researchers from Pasquier nor mages affiliated with Kirhausen.

They were clearly an external force that the current Kirhausens had joined hands with.

An organization that brazenly commits a taboo set by the current imperial family.

‘Are they remnants of the previous imperial family? Or those heretic bastards?’

I tried to deduce their identity from their appearance, which I couldn't place at all.

The previous imperial family and the heretics, who had a close relationship and fell together.

I knew because I had defeated them all, but I had no memory of such an appearance.

I drew up more magic to hear the contents of the conversation in the memory.

"We finally succeeded in creating it…!"

"With this, we can create Circe. Let's report to the teacher right away!"

"Yes, I'll send a message to Shainborough as well!"

‘What?’

But the conversation of the rejoicing green-caped mages was strange.

This seemed to be the reaction to succeeding in creating a homunculus for the first time.

But the current Sylvia was probably not their first homunculus.

‘What happened?’

I wondered and fast-forwarded Sylvia's memories.

Then, all the memories from her birth to her arrival at Shainborough and becoming a tutor unfolded.

Even the memory of meeting me, who had come as a tail, and turning me into a well was all vivid.

In other words, what I was seeing now was not a newly created Sylvia.

It was the memory of the first Sylvia ever created.

‘This doesn't make sense.’

Homunculi cannot inherit memories.

No matter how much they use the same materials and go through the same synthesis process.

A newly born homunculus can only accept new memories.

The existing homunculi couldn't have the memories of their predecessors.

I quickly fast-forwarded Sylvia's memories.

The answer to this question would be found not too far away.

‘Around here.’

I quickly reached the memory of a specific point in time.

It was right after Marcel and I left for the academy.

In the middle of the night, Sylvia was walking through an underground area somewhere, not Shainborough.

Her vision was blurry and her steps were somewhat unstable.

It was because she was on the verge of malfunctioning as a homunculus.

The place she arrived at was the homunculus synthesis workshop where she was born.

There was a man in a green cape, Ronan, and a new Sylvia who looked exactly like her.

"You called for me, teacher."

The man in the green cape, who was called teacher, approached Sylvia.

And the next moment.

Her vision went black, and the flow of memory was cut off abruptly.

A moment later, when Sylvia's memory resumed, she saw her own body from a moment ago being cleared away like a piece of luggage.

I clicked my tongue in contemptuous admiration.

This made it certain.

The external force the current Kirhausens had joined hands with had not only restored the taboo but had further advanced the creation technology.

They had achieved memory inheritance for homunculi.

‘They've started something bigger, much bigger than I thought.’

It was then.

"Ah… Aaaah……."

Sylvia's mouth opened, and her expression began to contort.

She trembled her jaw, making a somewhat hollow, noise-like sound.

‘Damn. Did I rummage through her memories too much?’

The scenes of the memories blurred and mixed together in a jumble.

The homunculus' mind, unable to handle my magic, had begun to collapse.