The Returned Magician Prevents the End

Chapter 4

I, Rough, shuddered at the cosmic power gathered in my grasp.

After awakening, the first thing I tried was the most basic magic of gathering and dispersing electricity.

For me, a magic engineer who handled complex magical devices, it was the most natural and familiar magic.

But its power wasn’t as familiar as my memories.

‘What in the world is this power…’

A potent mana reaction I’d never felt in my original body.

I, who kept marveling at its strength, soon gave a bitter smile.

“It’s all because of this cursed bloodline, isn’t it.”

I touched my long, dangling hair.

My once-gray hair now shimmered a brilliant silver.

Though the appearance, so reminiscent of a sorcerer, still filled me with disgust, strangely, I no longer felt the urge to die.

Was it because I’d accepted the memories of the nameless mixed-blood sorcerer boy who originally owned this body?

Feeling the bitterness lingering on my tongue, as if my mouth had burst, I recalled the faint wish left in the boy’s memories.

“Someday, I want to climb to the floating city… Someday, I’ll make it happen.”

Though, by then, Meltogan would be burning.

Perhaps due to the aftereffects of awakening mana, the excruciating pain that had gripped my body was no longer felt.

With senses sharpened like a blade, I calmly traced a path to the surface.

Even if moving my body posed no issue now, there was no guarantee this state would last.

My body, battered from tumbling through the scrap piles, had long been in ruins.

I was certain that once the exhilaration gripping my brain faded, I wouldn’t be able to move a single finger.

I climbed the towering heap of scrap metal with resolute steps.

Grabbing protrusions and finding footholds, swinging my legs in the air, my mind raced.

Thanks to recalling the memories of the boy who owned this body, I now understood much about my situation.

The collector organization, ‘Junk Family,’ that enslaved me was notorious even in Scrap City for its ruthlessness.

Taking in all sorts of riffraff, they dominated most of the scrap mountain with their overwhelming numbers and well-prepared armaments for criminals, forcing slaves into brutal labor until they died.

Even if I survived for now, my frail body wouldn’t hold up if I kept enduring the labor on the scrap mountain.

‘I have to escape this situation somehow.’

While moving instinctively and thinking, my senses, sharpened like a blade from the awakening, felt ‘something’ pulling me in the darkness.

‘This is…’

My eyes gleamed with interest as I spotted items standing out among the mountain of waste from the floating city.

I pulled a few items from the trash heap and stuffed them into my pocket.

‘They’re not exactly great items, but they’re enough to change the situation.’

By now, there was no hesitation in my movements toward the surface.

Reviewing countless possibilities in my mind, I lightly scaled the final trash peak.

“Half!”

The first to greet me upon reaching the surface was Victor.

Victor, who had been anxiously weaving through the scrap piles, spotted me and rushed over with such speed I thought he might trip and roll.

Before I could say anything, Victor reached me and grabbed my shoulders.

“Are you okay? Any injuries?”

“As you can see, I’m fine. Except for you trying to break my shoulders right now.”

At my words, Victor hurriedly let go of my shoulders.

Frowning deeply, he stared at me as if I were a ghost.

“Half, is that really you? I’m not seeing things, am I?”

“Yeah, it’s me, as you can see.”

“My goodness, I thought you were done for! The other adults said they saw Hank dragging you off. This time, that bastard Hank was going to…”

“Before that, there’s something I want to say.”

Since Victor’s words seemed endless, I cut him off with a firm tone.

Victor finally closed his mouth and looked at me with a puzzled expression.

I let out a sigh.

“First, from now on, I’d like you to call me ‘Rough’ when you address me.”

“Rough? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Does it need to mean anything? It’s way better than calling me Half, isn’t it?”

Tilting his head, Victor pondered my words and soon nodded vigorously.

“Alright, I don’t know what it means, but it sounds easier to say.”

“Excellent and one more thing. The adults were right. I was captured by Hank until just a moment ago.”

At my declaration, Victor’s face turned to one of shock.

Seeing him instinctively make a gesture to ward off ghosts, I let out a chuckle.

“No matter what you’re imagining, you don’t need to do that. I’m not a ghost or some walking corpse.”

“B-but if you were really caught by Hank, how are you so fine? Hank was dead set on killing you.”

“That’s exactly why I’m bringing this up.”

At my declaration, Victor’s expression turned bewildered.

I gave him a playful smile.

“There’s something I really need to ask of you.”

* * *

The Junk Family’s collector was dumbfounded.

In his memory, slaves were always lowly creatures too timid to meet his eyes.

Trash crawling through the filthy refuse of the scrap mountain with fearful gazes.

With such a mindset, when I, standing boldly before them, demanded a meeting with their boss, the collectors didn’t even think to get angry.

“Kid, what did you just say?”

“Exactly what I said. Call the boss here right now. Don’t forget to mention it’s urgent.”

“Y-you k-know it’s not p-polite, but… it’s really urgent… c-could I meet the boss somehow?”

Fortunately, Victor’s timid, stammering demeanor helped them regain their senses and revert to their usual brutal selves.

“You crazy brats are causing a ruckus together. You think the boss has time for the likes of you? Get lost!”

As the collector’s voice grew louder, Victor’s eyes shook wildly.

He tugged at my clothes, urging us to leave, but I, with a confident air, pulled a small pendant from my pocket.

“You should listen to people until they’re done. I guarantee the boss will change his mind when he sees this.”

“These brats really need a beating to come to their senses…”

The collector’s angry words were cut off as a brilliant light burst from the pendant in my right hand.

The blinding light made everyone instinctively shield their eyes.

When the pendant’s light faded as if nothing had happened, the collector, staring blankly at me, let out a strange groan and lunged toward me.

“You, you! That thing!”

Shaking my shoulders as if out of his mind, he seemed barely able to speak.

I grinned at him, panting as if he might pass out.

“I found it by chance this morning while digging through the scrap mountain. I think it might be an ‘artifact.’ What do you think, Master?”

“An artifact!”

The surrounding collectors let out a collective gasp.

Artifacts, believed to be created by sorcerers, were literally the dream of Scrap City’s collectors, precious treasures.

It didn’t matter what magic an artifact held.

Even the most trivial artifact fetched unimaginable prices in Scrap City.

To the humans living in Meltogan’s shadow, artifacts held value beyond mere ‘curiosities.’

Artifacts gave ordinary humans, unable to wield mana, the feeling of touching the great power that shaped the world, even if just a little.

I playfully dangled the pendant-shaped artifact in my hand.

“What are you waiting for? Move already.”

“What?”

“Don’t you need to report this artifact to the boss as soon as possible? Or would you rather he hears about it through someone else?”

The collector, seeming to debate whether to get angry, turned grim at my words.

He hurriedly dashed into the building.

Collectors gathered around me to gawk at the artifact, and I pulled out a familiar figure from the crowd of curious and angry faces.

Pushing through the crowd, I snapped my fingers lightly in front of Victor, who still hadn’t regained his composure.

“Huh, wh-what?”

“Get it together. Remember what I said earlier?”

“What you said earlier…? Oh, of course.”

“Good, just do it like you always do. I know you can handle it.”

I nodded at the anxious-looking Victor.

My confident gesture seemed to help him regain some composure.

Clenching his fists cutely, Victor slipped deftly through the collectors, and once he was completely gone, I waited calmly for the guest who would soon arrive.

After a while, as I wondered whether to do something about the stinging gazes around me,

Junk, the collector, finally appeared from afar.

“The artifact! Where’s the artifact!”

Sweating profusely from his rush, Junk shouted hoarsely.

Each movement made his unbelievably heavy body creak ominously on his mechanical prosthetic leg.

Unlike the other collectors, who wore little more than leather armor, he had stuffed his bulky frame into a faded gray suit, reeking of foul chemicals.

The collectors grimaced and covered their noses at Junk’s arrival, but I greeted him nonchalantly, as if unaffected by the stench.

“Nice to meet you, Master Junk.”

“Cut the nonsense! Show me the artifact now. If you lied about having an artifact, I’ll rip out your tongue and use it as a rag!”

At Junk’s menacing threat, I obediently presented the pendant.

Junk let out an incomprehensible scream and snatched it.

Fiddling with the pendant curiously, he triggered the same bright light as before.

“Argh!”

Startled and nearly dropping the pendant, Junk’s prosthetic leg creaked violently as he barely steadied himself.

Trembling with his jowls shaking, he muttered as if in a trance.

“My goodness, it’s really an artifact!”

“You’re getting ahead of yourself.”

“What?”

“I said you’re getting ahead of yourself. I have two more items to offer you, Master Junk.”

Junk’s massive body lunged toward me.

Standing close enough for me to feel his breath, he whispered menacingly.

“You mean there are two more artifacts like this pendant?”

“Of course.”

At my bold reply, a scream tinged with awe erupted from the gathered collectors.

Three artifacts, not just one—what a dreamlike scenario.

“Don’t lie! How could a worthless mongrel like you find such treasures? Three of them, no less!”

One of the collectors shouted at me.

Turning to him, I spoke in a perfectly relaxed voice.

“You’re right. If I were ‘truly’ a worthless mongrel, I wouldn’t have found them.”

With that, I immediately interfered with the mana flowing around me.

As I manipulated the mana, my blue eyes blazed like will-o’-the-wisps, and my dull gray hair floated upward, shining silver.

Faced with the surreal scene before them, the collectors gaped at me, mouths agape.

Finishing my mana manipulation, I looked at Junk with a pale complexion.

“But recently, I awakened to mana. That’s how I could find artifacts in the scrap mountain. Can you trust me now?”

Swallowing hard, Junk nodded as if entranced.

Smiling brightly again, I confidently pulled a ring from my pocket.

“Look at this. An artifact enchanted with a spell to spout water!”

As I put on the ring, a powerful jet of water burst from it.

Now, not only Junk but the surrounding collectors looked as if they might faint, their mouths hanging open.

Enjoying their reactions, I demonstrated the ring leisurely, then spread my arms wide just as the collectors’ patience neared its limit.

“The final, third artifact is the most powerful and rare among them. It’s… it’s… huh?”

Triumphantly reaching into my pocket for the artifact, I made a visibly flustered expression.

Junk, eyes bulging, shook me as if he could bear it no longer.

“What’s the last one! Why are you dragging this out!”

“I’m not dragging it out on purpose. I’m sure I put it here… That’s strange…”

As I frantically searched my body with a panicked look, my gaze met Hank’s among the collectors.

A cold sneer briefly crossed my face, and as Hank, sensing something ominous, tried to speak, I pointed directly at him.

“There!”

At my shout, the collectors’ gazes turned to Hank.

“I feel my artifact coming from Master Hank.”

As all eyes focused on Hank, I gave a faint smile.