The Returned Magician Prevents the End

Chapter 2

“What… What is this? What’s going on!”

I, Rough, fumbled over my body with trembling hands.

But the more I did, the more undeniable the unbelievable reality became: I had turned into an unfamiliar boy.

A scrawny body with ribs protruding, a gaunt face with sunken cheeks, and frail limbs that seemed ready to snap.

I found it hard to comprehend this situation.

Though I had experienced countless time regressions, I had never faced such a bewildering ordeal.

To be dropped in an unknown place, in the body of a child whose age I couldn’t even guess!

“What the…”

A gloomy hill piled high with rusted scrap metal and trash.

The dark clouds blanketing the sky and the raindrops battering my face made it hard to see anything beyond.

Standing frozen in place, I desperately pondered the nature of this depressing, chaotic location.

“Hey-! You there-! Are you okay?”

A stranger’s voice reached my ears as I thought.

Lifting my head, I realized the voice was coming from atop the hill.

Shielding my eyes from the pouring rain, I soon spotted a figure moving hurriedly through the thick darkness.

“I’m coming down to you-! Just wait there a bit-!”

The person descending the hill seemed to have spotted me standing below.

The voice, initially directed far off, was now firmly fixed on me.

‘Should I run?’

Glancing around anxiously, I quickly realized escape was impossible.

The scrap metal and trash around me were stacked so steeply it seemed excessive.

Staring at the towering piles of debris far taller than me, I wondered how I had ended up in such a place.

Fortunately, that question was soon answered.

The figure hurrying toward me swayed unsteadily and began sliding down.

“Arghhh!”

Clang! Crash!

A loud cacophony echoed as human and scrap metal tumbled together.

Covering my ears, I watched the scene and soon saw a boy, in a disheveled state, tangled in the debris before me.

‘…Could he be dead?’

I cautiously approached the boy, my eyes full of wariness.

As I reached his body, the boy, buried in the scrap pile, twitched and rose.

“Phew! I thought I was a goner.”

The boy stood, casually brushing himself off and grumbling as if it were no big deal.

I, still on guard, spoke to him.

“Who are you?”

At my question, Victor gave an incredulous look.

“What’s that supposed to mean? Not enough with hide-and-seek, now you’re pretending to have lost your memory? It’s me, your friend Victor. Don’t tell me you forgot my name too.”

But I only felt confusion.

I spoke to the dirty-looking boy who introduced himself as Victor.

“Victor, you say? Hold on, just a moment. This is hard to understand, but… do you know me?”

“Why are you suddenly acting so creepy? Did you really lose your memory?”

At my firm response, a serious expression began to creep over Victor’s face, which had been smiling until then.

“That’s weird. You look perfectly fine.”

Victor, now with a grave face, reached toward my head.

Startled by the sudden gesture, I swatted his hand away.

“What are you doing!”

“I was just checking if you were hurt somewhere. You can’t even remember my face properly, so

I thought you must’ve hit your head… hit your head… My goodness!”

Victor, withdrawing his hand with an awkward look, suddenly let out a scream as if shocked.

Ignoring my glare, he pointed behind me.

“You…! What’s that!”

Following his finger, I nearly screamed as well.

The ground where I had been lying was soaked with dark red liquid, churning wildly in the pouring rain.

A metallic stench of blood spread through the splashing rainwater.

I instinctively touched the back of my head.

Bright red blood on my hand washed away in the rain.

In this incomprehensible situation, I let out a “Hah.”

“My goodness, blood! It’s blood!”

“I saw it, so you don’t need to tell me again. Where’s this blood coming from? I don’t have any wounds.”

“How can you talk so calmly about it? If you’re bleeding, you need treatment fast. Wait here a bit. I’ll go get the masters.”

“Masters?”

Victor hurriedly started climbing the hill.

At that moment, a blinding light shone down on us from above.

But the giant threw my body, which he was holding, along with a threat.

Thrown among the scrap piles, I let out a long groan from the pain surging through my body.

“Damn it… what the hell is going on…”

My hoarse voice was drowned out by the rain, vanishing without a trace.

Gazing at the pouring rain, I cursed everything in sight.

* * *

“Let’s get this straight. So, you’re saying I’m a slave under the same people as you?”

Listening carefully to Victor’s story, I spoke with my arms crossed.

At my question, Victor gave an exasperated look.

“Yes! That’s what I’ve been saying. How many times do I have to repeat it?”

“What’s my name?”

“Slaves don’t have names. We just called you Half.”

“For someone saying slaves don’t have names, you seem to be called Victor.”

“That’s a name I gave myself. If you’re so upset about not having a name, you could’ve just picked one too.”

At Victor’s sharp retort, I closed my mouth.

Shaking my head as if it hurt, I let out a sigh.

“Around ten years old, you say… and the ones enslaving us are probably that big guy’s gang we saw earlier? Ah, what’s that about?”

I pushed away Victor, who was trying to cover my mouth.

Glancing around nervously, Victor hissed in a low whisper.

“Please stop talking like that! If the masters hear, we’re really in trouble!”

“Who’s going to hear… Hah, fine. So, what do these ‘masters’ do?”

“What do they do? What else is there to do in the Scrap City? They go around in gangs, killing, beating, kidnapping, that sort of thing.”

Having lived through years on the battlefield, I easily understood Victor’s explanation.

‘Warlords or some criminal scum, I bet.’

When wars drag on, groups like these often seize power in the gaps of lawlessness.

But I couldn’t quite pinpoint their exact identity.

Despite visiting countless places in the empire through my many regressions, I couldn’t figure out where in the empire I was now.

‘Damn witch.’

Covering my eyes, I scowled and looked up at the hill.

“What’s all this commotion!”

“Master, it’s a disaster! Half’s head is cracked, and blood’s pouring out! He looks like he’s about to die! Well, to be precise, he doesn’t seem hurt at all right now.”

It was clear the man holding the light had no patience for Victor’s rambling.

The light swayed, and soon a burly giant leapt down from the hill toward us.

As my vision blurred, I was grabbed by the collar and hoisted into the air by a rough hand.

“I told you I wouldn’t let it slide if you caused another disturbance.”

“Oh, Master, please forgive him just this once! He’s not right in the head with his injury!”

“What nonsense are you spouting!”

“Look over there!”

At Victor’s earnest plea, the giant turned to where he pointed.

The pool of blood on the ground was enough to startle even the brutal giant.

Blinking, the man reached for me, inspecting my body carefully before shouting angrily.

“There’s not a single wound!”

“That’s what’s so strange. With this much blood, he should be dead, but he looks perfectly fine…”

Hanging in the air, listening to their conversation, I was dumbfounded.

I had countless questions in this incomprehensible situation, but the two who could answer were busy with their own talk.

I opened my mouth to protest the giant gripping my collar.

“Enough, get back to work. If you use this as an excuse to miss your quota, you’d better be ready.”

It seemed clear that the cause of this chaotic situation was the Witch of Starlight.

Recalling the final moment of my time regression, I gritted my teeth.

“What the hell is this ‘Scrap City’? Was there a city by that name in the empire?”

“Now you’re asking weird things again. Scrap City is Scrap City. Don’t tell me you don’t even know that?”

I looked up at Victor, who stood with a bewildered expression.

Clicking his tongue, Victor shook his head.

“You must’ve really lost it after hitting your head. Get a grip. Where in the world is there an empire? That’s just a myth from old stories. Nonsense.”

“What do you mean? Is the empire a myth?”

I couldn’t understand Victor’s words.

“That’s a fairy tale kids believe in. You mean the ‘empire,’ the supposed human nation beyond the eastern continent, right?”

“Wait, what’s beyond the eastern continent?”

My reaction, leaping up, far exceeded Victor’s expectations.

Startled, Victor answered in a flustered voice.

“Y-you know, the stories. Cross the desert, climb the mountains, and a human nation appears. Don’t tell me you, Half, believe in that ridiculous myth?”

I cautiously grabbed Victor’s shoulder.

“Say that again, slowly. Cross the desert, climb the mountains, and a human nation appears?”

“Yes, that’s what I said!”

“So, this is the Western Continent?”

“Western Continent? Well… I guess you could say that, location-wise?”

At Victor’s dazed reply, a bolt of lightning struck my mind.

The Western Continent, a mysterious land no one from the empire had ever crossed to.

Beyond its geographical significance, the Western Continent held great meaning for me.

It was the home of the silver-haired sorcerers’ city.

“I need to confirm.”

“Huh? What? What’s that supposed to mean? Hey! Where are you going!”

I immediately began climbing the scrap pile.

Victor’s alarmed shouts echoed behind me, but I didn’t stop.

‘No way. It’s just nonsense from some clueless kid.’

Clutching protruding scrap metal as I climbed, I repeated that to myself endlessly.

As a human from the Eastern Continent, I naturally knew little about the Western Continent where the sorcerers lived.

All I knew was the vague fact that a sorcerers’ city floated in the sky above the vast desert.

My frail body screamed with each intense movement, but I ignored it, focusing solely on climbing the mountain of trash.

As my exhausted legs began to tremble, I finally reached the hill’s summit.

Just then, the dark clouds parted, and pale moonlight streamed down from the night sky.

Under the bright moonlight, I saw an endless desert and a city rising abruptly like a festering sore below.

And there it was.

The homeland of all sorcerers, the world’s only floating city.

In awe, I gazed at the sorcerers’ city, Meltogan, hovering high in the sky.