The Great Mage Returns After 4000 Years Book 2: Chapter 376

Book 2: Chapter 376

“How did you do that?”
The woman came rushing over and called out to him in a surprised voice.
Instead of responding, Lukas stared at her for a while.
Compared to her voice, she looked very young. Perhaps it would be more appropriate to call her a girl instead of a woman. Contrary to her exceptionally noticeable navy blue hair, and her boisterous voice, she had a particularly small figure. Her thin cheeks and skinny limbs were prominent features. They gave the impression it would be much better if she gained a bit of weight.
“…?”
Despite being stared at so closely, the girl didn’t seem particularly bothered. Instead, she simply tilted her head to the side in a relaxed manner before opening her mouth with a soft ‘ah’.
“It’s Pale.” (TL: Or peil, or fail. Or anything with the same phonetic translation.)
“Pale.”
“That’s my name.”
She pointed to herself with her finger and smiled.
Was that her real name? If so, it was a very unique name.
Lukas wasn’t particularly wary of her. However, he couldn’t help but wonder if her innocence was an act or not.
“I haven’t seen another person in a long time. So it’s nice to meet you!”
Pale walked up to him and stuck her hand out. But Lukas walked past her, ignoring it.
“You shouldn’t go that way.”
He wasn’t walking particularly quickly, and Pale, who was able to follow behind him, advised.
“You seem to be familiar with this place.”
“At the very least, when it comes to this place, I’m your senior.”
As soon as he mumbled those words, a smug reply came back.
…Senior. For a moment, he felt a strange feeling that came with that word.
“Why can’t I go this way?”
“It’s a territory.”
“Territory?”
“Yeah. If you set foot there, you’ll get painted.”
“…”
He didn’t know what [painted] meant.
Lukas pondered for a moment on whether he should follow Pale’s advice or not.
‘…although I can use magic now.’
He wasn’t sure if it was a temporary phenomenon or not.
In addition, the mana that he had used had yet to be recovered. Did that mean that he would not be able to regain the mana he used? …He didn’t know. There was too little information.
Lukas looked at Pale and came to a conclusion.
Firstly, he should get information about this place from her.
* * *
A desert that seemed to stretch infinitely in every direction.
He could clearly feel the sand beneath his feet. As he expected, unlike last time, he didn’t have the feeling that he would return after a while.
‘The Imaginary World.’
Lukas realised that this was the world after extinction that even Absolutes feared. (TL: I feel like I should add that ‘extinction’ here is more like ‘ceasing to exist’.)
Perhaps the ‘black box’ had been a gateway to this world.
The grey desert was neither hot nor cold. There also didn’t seem to be any separation between day and night.
The surrounding landscape was also frozen as if even time had stopped. In the end, there was only one thing that changed drastically.
It was the sky. The sky constantly changed its colour as though it was a mixture of paints. It was now glowing, but it didn’t give off a mysterious feeling like an aurora.
‘Why was I sent here?’
Lukas wondered as he sat in the middle of the desert.
He understood that this was the Imaginary World. But he had no idea why God had pushed him into this world.
‘I needed to completely… disappear?’
Clearly, this was a space where only the forgotten could enter. At least that was the concept that Lukas understood.
If that was the case, then what? Had Lukas now become ‘a being that didn’t exist’ in his home universe? Before they had even gotten rid of Diablo?
‘I can’t yet.’
There was still more he had to teach Peran.
Crunch, crunch.
Pale was eating a scorpion the size of an adult’s palm raw. Green slime dripped from her mouth.
When their eyes met, Pale smiled brightly and held out half of the scorpion to him.
“Ay, I’ll be generous! Here!”
“…”
“Are you not going to eat?”
“…I’m not hungry.”
He couldn’t say that looking at her had caused him to lose his appetite, so he simply looked away.
“Mmm. Don’t regret it.”
Pale murmured those words, but she didn’t offer the rest of the scorpion to him anymore and instead brought it to her lips. Once again, the crunching sound filled the air.
Lukas tried to ignore her and continued his thoughts.
He was at a loss.
A life without a goal would be boring and worthless.
That was how Lukas felt now. He had lost his purpose. It was no exaggeration to say that the purpose he’d found in an impossible situation had been forcibly stripped away.
He’d intended to make Peran his successor, and he’d really been prepared to die. Then, he was suddenly dragged into the Imaginary World, and now, he was sitting in front of a woman he didn’t know.
At that point, he couldn’t help but feel that fate hated him. Everything that he wished for didn’t come true, and the things that he didn’t want, usually happened in even worse ways.
“Twet.”
In the meantime, Pale had finished her meal. She spat out a piece of scorpion shell, licked her lips, and hummed in satisfaction.
Lukas hadn’t managed to obtain much information from Pale.
Maybe she was hiding something, or maybe that was just the way she talked.
In any case, Pale’s answers to most of Lukas’ questions were vague, and her facial expressions were so vivid they were unreadable.
“Then I’ll take my rest!”
This attitude was a good example of it.
As if she’d just finished talking, Pale nodded before laying down on the desert sand. She didn’t snore, but she was clearly fast asleep in an instant.
Lukas sighed before looking up at the sky once more.
The sky was still glowing.
* * *
The next day, Lukas was about to take a step when he suddenly fell to the ground.
“What…”
He hadn’t tripped on anything. In the first place, there were no rocks in this desert. And he hadn’t tripped over his own feet.
When he looked down, Lukas’ expression hardened.
His feet had disappeared.
To be precise, from the soles of his feet to his ankles had transformed into white smoke.
“Uncle, didn’t you eat anything yesterday?”
Pale tilted her head to the side before she continued.
“This is why you should have eaten when I gave it to you. Ugh.”
“…is this because I didn’t eat the scorpion?”
“Naturally. If you don’t eat, you’ll disappear.”
Pale scratched her head.
“Ay. I guess it can’t be helped. I was going to save this to eat later.”
She rummaged through her pockets for a moment before pulling something out.
It was a tailless mouse with five eyes.
“Does this mean you owe me one?”
Lukas wasn’t a picky eater, but he was still not relaxed enough to see a rat as food.
“Aren’t you going to eat? You’re going to disappear.”
“What will happen if I disappear?”
“I don’t know, I’ve never disappeared.”
“…”
Now that she mentioned it, that was right. It would be dangerous to let this continue.
Lukas reluctantly collected the mouse. And after looking at it for a while, he decided he wasn’t going to eat it raw, so he made a fireball and baked it. Nevertheless, the smell was disgusting, and the texture of fur as it slid down his throat was nauseating.
Gulp-
As soon as he swallowed it, a disgusting stench filled his nostrils. He stayed still for a while because he knew the moment he let his guard down, he would end up vomiting.
Sss…
At that moment, his feet, which had become white smoke, regained their shape.
That wasn’t all, a portion of his mana also returned.
“Five meals!”
Pale shouted.
“…what?”
“You have to eat a meal five times, for every time the sky changes. Otherwise, you will start disappearing from your toes. If the sky changes three times while you’re in that state, your entire body would disappear.”
This was the type of information Lukas wanted to hear.
“Isn’t there anything better to eat?”
“There is. But the chubby ones are usually in ‘the territory’.”
“…what is the territory?”
“A place we can’t go.”
“What will happen if we go there?”
“We’ll get painted.”
“What does it mean to get painted?”
“I don’t know.”
“…”
Whenever he asked questions, he would also be met with this mysterious answer in the end.
As a result, the only way for him to learn about this ‘painting’ experience, was to experience it for himself.
“Uh!”
Suddenly, Pale raised her head and looked into the distance.
They could see small shapes meandering towards them.
At first, Lukas thought it was a large, centipede-like insect, but it wasn’t.
It only looked like that from a distance, but as they grew closer, it became possible to see its true appearance.
Dwarves.
Dwarves with a height that only reached Lukas’ waist.
They all looked like boys and girls, and they didn’t appear dangerous.
“…!”
“…!”
When the dwarves spotted Lukas, their faces turned bright. Then they began circling around Lukas. Their joyful expressions and exuberant movements made it seem like they were dancing.
However, unlike their ‘loud’ body movements, they did not make a sound.
Could they not talk?
Suddenly, a dwarf girl signalled to Lukas with her hands.
‘Sign language?’
It probably was.
The other dwarves kept smiling with bright expressions, but there was no sign of them speaking any words.
He wasn’t sure if it was because they didn’t have vocal organs or if it was for some other reason.
When Lukas remained silent, another dwarf girl pulled his clothes. But she didn’t pull with all her might; the strength she used was so weak that Lukas only felt like his clothes had been caught on a branch.
“Wow! These are natives! I think they’re trying to invite you.”
This was her first time seeing something like this. Pale smiled happily.
“Invite me?”
“Follow them first! Maybe they’ll treat us to nice food!”
As she said that Pale began to walk with an excited gait. There were no dwarves around her.
All the dwarves had surrounded Lukas.
“…”
If he stayed, he wouldn’t be able to learn anything.
So Lukas obediently allowed the dwarves to pull him along.
The dwarves gathered into a line like they had when they appeared. They even advised Lukas to join them, before finally advancing. Pale happily followed behind them with a smile on her face.
This would have been a ridiculous sight for anyone who saw this, but the dwarves all had serious expressions.
They walked for an unknown length of time.
Suddenly, the leading dwarf stopped. Naturally, the dwarves following him stopped as well. Then, they started looking around as though they were looking for something.
Pale also swung her head around, seemingly copying their actions.
Are they ensuring that no one is around? At first, Lukas was cautious, but he couldn’t sense anything.
Perhaps the leading dwarf realised that too because he nodded once before taking a step forward. And then disappeared.
Shuk! Shuk!
No. He didn’t disappear.
When the second and third dwarves also disappeared after taking a step forward, Lukas noticed a small indent in the sand. Upon closer inspection, he realised that there was a small ant nest there.
In an instant, dozens of dwarves disappeared.
“This is going to be fun!”
Pale jumped into the ant nest with an excited shout, and Lukas slowly followed suit.
Just in case, he took a deep breath before he jumped in, but he didn’t have any trouble breathing. If it wasn’t for the grains of sand digging into his clothes, he might have mistaken it for being washed along a river.
Instead, all he could see was darkness.
After a while, the sand rapids stopped and Lukas suddenly felt like his body was floating in the air.
No. It wasn’t a feeling. It was real.
Lukas body was falling from the sky.
Just as he wondered how he would respond since he seemed to be very far from the ground.
Whoosh!
One of the dwarves who had entered earlier caught Lukas before throwing him to another dwarf. This process was repeated several times.
“…”
He was being tossed about.
Pale, who had entered before him, was laughing as she was thrown by the dwarves. Minutes later, the excited dwarves deposited Lukas to the ground and he was finally able to look around.
He would not have thought that a city existed underground. The city had an ancient aura like that of a historical ruin, but that feeling was partially obscured by the liveliness of the dwarves.
“Follow, come.”
One of the dwarves spoke. They hadn’t said a single word before, but now they had definitely spoken, even if the tone was a bit rough.
“Where?”
“Us.”
“Follow, come.”
The dwarves smiled as they led Lukas into the inner city.
Through the holes in the small houses that served as windows, small dwarves stuck their heads out. They all seemed much smaller and weaker than the dwarves that were guiding Lukas. Their eyes that looked at Lukas and Pale were filled with fear and wariness.
Pale waved brightly and the dwarves flinched visibly before jumping back into their buildings like turtles.
A dwarf tapped Pale on the back of her hand.
“Ah.”
“Provoke, stop.”
He seemed to have said it in an intimidating tone, but, unfortunately, it wasn’t intimidating at all.
“They, not warriors.”
“Eh? Then are you guys warriors?”
“Right.’
“We, warriors.”
The dwarves responded with proud expressions. They didn’t seem to be joking or bluffing, so they probably sincerely felt that way.
However, the noisy atmosphere diminished as they entered the heart of the city.
It wasn’t long until they arrived before a huge cathedral.
“From here, only you.”
A dwarf pointed at Lukas.
Then he looked at Pale and shook his head.
“Blue hair girl, can’t.”
“Not allowed.”
“Uwaa. Why not?”
Pale made a disappointed expression.
Then she turned to look at Lukas.
“You will get to meet the Lord! I’m jealous!”
“…Lord?”
“I wanted to meet him too. Uwa. Uwa.”
Pale twisted her body around while making strange sounds.
Lukas didn’t get the chance to ask more. At the urging of the dwarves, he walked to the front of the cathedral.
Creak-
The huge iron door opened, revealing a chapel. Lit torches that hung on both sides of the room gave it a gloomy atmosphere.
…He was beginning to have a strange feeling.
The atmosphere in the chapel was not strange. In fact, he was used to it.
Tap tap.
The sounds of his footsteps echoed quietly in the building.
Lukas paused after walking for a while.
There was someone on the altar.
“…”
When he saw that back, Lukas couldn’t help but suck in a deep breath.
That figure…
[An interesting guest.]
“…!”
As soon as he heard that voice, his doubts became certain.
Lukas stepped back, subconsciously raising his mana.
Then, the figure on the altar slowly turned around.
A body that gave off a holy white glow.
A lack of features.
…It wasn’t an illusion.
He wasn’t mistaken.
This being,
The one whose relationship with Lukas could only be described as tumultuous opened his mouth.
[How did you come here? Unfamiliar yet familiar being.]
The Lord of the Demigods looked at Lukas.