Return of The 8th Class Mage

Chapter 175 The Last Knot (4) 𝑓𝗿𝐞𝘦𝘄ｅ𝘣n𝘰𝘷eƖ.c𝘰𝗺

“Ian...”

Ledio followed the crown prince to the bedroom and now slowly began to speak.

“He said that he was solving a problem that was still left.”

“A problem?”

“I cannot explain in specifics, but he has said it by this letter.”

Ledio handed the parchment on the bedside table to the crown prince, and it was Ian’s handwritten letter explaining the situation.

“What is going on...”

The crown prince looked over the quite long letter.

“To my family and...”

[To my family and friends.]

[I know that you all will be quite surprised.]

[However, I had no choice.]

[First, I am not dead.]

[I’m temporarily in another world.]

[I have to tie this knot.]

[Therefore, I’m going to finish this.]

[While I cannot explain further...]

[Don’t despair, as I will return soon.]

“Another...world?”

Not another country or another land, but another ‘world?’ It was something surreal for anyone except Ian. However, since Ian had written this letter, it seemed not a lie.

“This letter...”

[If this letter is read by those who may read it, please rip the parchment.]

“Rip...?”

The letter ended with a request to rip it, and Ian had probably written this for his family and the crown prince. So, now was the time to rip it.

“We were about to ask you to follow what is written in the letter after showing it to you. If it’s not too much trouble, could you do so?”

Ledio politely made a request, and the crown prince also nodded.

“It can be done.”

As Ian had requested, the letter was ripped by the crown prince’s hands. The parchment was carefully ripped, and there was no reaction until the paper burned in blue fire. However, the flames were not hot and comfortably warm against the crown prince’s fingertips.

“.......?”

The blue flames began to form letters, and four messages were being written at the same time.

[Mother, you will be surprised about Father suddenly appearing and all things that happened after that. I will tell you all about them when I return, so please wait for a little longer.]

The first message had been for Vanessa Page, Ian’s mother. While Vanessa did not show it, she would be the most surprised as Fran Page, who she thought had been dead for a long time, had been involved.

[Ledio and Douglas, I have not much to say. Since I gave you my approval, do your best. Become my stepfather, give me a younger sibling, go on partying...do what you want.]

Stepfather meant Ledio, and younger sibling would mean Douglas, and Ledio’s face reddened. As Ledio cleared his throat, the third message appeared.

[I apologize to the artisans and can only say to wait a bit longer. However, I will keep my promise, and do not worry since I already know the method.]

Ian had promised that he would remove immortality from the artisans, and he was alluding to that.

[Finally, to the crown prince, your highness, who would have come here as soon as he could and rip the letter himself.]

All of them flinched at the fourth message, and the crown prince’s response was first-class. Ian had guessed correctly to the extent that they thought Ian was watching from somewhere.

[Congratulations on your successful expedition. You would have realized a lot of things. Even if you had not, I would think you did, since you must do so.]

The message started with a light joke, and the crown prince smiled.

[I apologize for not visiting you right after things wrapped up. I will have to take a leave of absence to solve the cause of all this and the problems that had branched out due to this incident. However, I won’t be absent long, so please go on as you are doing now.]

Ian’s message ended there.

“......”

Everyone surrounding Ian’s body, the crown prince, Ledio, Douglas, and Vanessa all remained silent.

“Since he says that he has something he must do, what else can we do but wait since we are so benevolent?”

The crown prince broke the silence, and he made the joke to loosen the atmosphere. He was also speaking the right answer.

“Your highness is right since Ian will not say nonsense. Since he said that he will return soon, let’s all wait for a little longer.”

Ledio also agreed with the crown prince, as Ian Page walked a higher plane than ordinary people. He would see sights that only he could see, and trying to understand would be impossible from the beginning.

“However...”

The crown prince went on quietly, as while he understood Ian’s actions, he still felt sorry.

“It would have been nice for Ian to go after a rest.”

Everyone, including the crown prince, thought that Ian would return soon, and they could meet again.

***

“......!”

Ian opened his eyes, and he could not count the times he had done so.

“Where am I now?”

He looked around like he was used to it and looked at his body. His hands, feet, and legs were small like a child.

“It’s itchy.”

Ian was not lying down on a luxurious bed like the one in the manor, and he was lying on a bale of hay that was dry and smelly like it had been stuck in a warehouse for a long time.

‘This age and this treatment...Oh, I remember.”

Ian was literally not Ian, and that meant while his soul was Ian’s, his body and surroundings were of a different world. Ian had been returning the souls in his mind world by wandering through hundreds of dimensions. f𝚛e𝗲𝔀e𝚋𝑛o𝘃𝒆𝗹.c𝗼𝒎

‘Out of all the dimensions I experienced...’

This was the world where Ian Page lived in the most unfortunate situation as a human being.

‘While I can return him to where he was, will things be all right?’

It was not difficult to reawaken the soul of this world’s Ian Page since Ian only needed to free the right soul, erase all of the memories he had witnessed, and leave quietly.

‘It’s easy to do, unlike before, but the problem is...’

Ian did not need to drink special draughts to enter his mind world, as he could do so instantly with a mana breath if he wanted.

‘It’s disconcerting to leave the boy like this...’

If Ian gave back the soul to his owner and went to a different dimension, the Ian Page of this world would live the same life he had before.

‘He is also Ian Page.’

Ian of this world was filled with despair and was the most wretched of all Ians.

‘How can one become like this with that talent? Life is strange.’

Ians of other dimensions had shown talent as a mage and therefore lived comfortably. However, Ian here was a different story.

‘To think that he did not live as a mage, but as a pub’s underling who is beaten.’

The thirteen-year-old Ian Page of this world was a sad story. He was born in the Coldwood Empire and went working for a pub run by ruffians to care for his sick mother. He had lived for three years and only worked while being beaten every day, and it was just barely possible to survive.

‘I would let it go if things weren’t so desperate.’

It was something that happened in another dimension, and he had to limit his intervention to the absolute minimum. However, no matter how many times he thought of things and tried to justify this situation...

‘This is not acceptable.’

It was not, as the boy was Ian Page himself, and his mother was ill.

‘I’ll help a bit, a little.’

Ian would help him to the extent that the boy would not be beaten and not be looked down upon by everyone.

“Hey, this bastard woke up.”

It was then Ian heard a voice outside the warehouse door. The voice was sharp and male, and he spoke in the language of the Coldwood Empire.

“You wouldn’t wake up no matter how we slapped you, but you did want to live, didn’t you? We were going to drown you in the river if you did not wake up today.”

The dirty-looking Coldwood man laughed as he opened the door.

“It’s convenient. Stop blinking those rotten eyes and dart out. You have loads to do.”

Ian looked over the boy’s memories and saw that he was the one who led the beatings. His name was Lambao, who belonged to the gang managing the pub.

“Oh? Have you gone crazy after sleeping? Come on out when I’m only making you with words.”

Lambao began to swagger as he approached Ian, who remained still, and the man raised his fist as usual.

“Hey, look at you? All right, I’ll make you remember.”

Lambao was going to grab Ian’s head or ear and twist it, which meant the beginning of a beating. However...

“It’s a shame.”

“What?”

“Me being exploited by worthless guys like you.”

Ian would not remain still, and he used the appropriate response, which was magic. A simple spell was enough. A cracking sound rang, like someone’s fingers were broken.

“What...?”

A scream followed the sound, and it was full of questions.

“Ah, ahhh!”

Lambao’s right fingers broke, and the pain spread quickly. The light moans became loud screams.

“What....what?!”

“Be thankful, since a few fingers was a low price.”

Ian went out from the pub, and thought about what should he change in this situation?

‘First, mother.’

The boy’s memories showed that Ian’s young mother was lying ill, and even if this was a different world, mother was mother. Ian felt that he needed to restore her health first.

“Mother.”

The house Ian’s mother lay in was a wreck. Since she was staying here, her illness had to worsen instead of getting better.

“Have you been busy? I had been worried since you have not come during the past few days...”

Vanessa spoke as she coughed and turned her body with some difficulty. Ian’s face became sorry, and even if this was a different dimension, he could not stop the sadness rolling in his chest.

“Lie down for a little while.”

Ian started using all healing spells he knew, and as zero-class magic did not need mana, he could use high-class spells despite his mana heart not being fully grown yet.

“Ian? What is this...”

“If you sleep for a while...”

Vanessa could not hide her surprise at the change from deep inside her body, and Ian whispered to her in a sweet voice.

“..A lot of things will be changed.”

“What...are...”

“See you when you wake up.”

Ian cast a simple sleeping spell after treatment, as it would be right for her to sleep now.

‘Then...’

It was time to build some foundations for the thirteen-year-old kid who had been a victim all his life.

‘A mage will be the right choice.’

If he left the boy with his mana heart and brain recognized by mana response tests, the boy’s life would be stable afterward. The problem was that it was too late. The boy had missed the period when the tests were administered on a large scale when wandering the streets.

‘What would be a good way...’

Ian could wait several months to participate in the landwide mana response tests, but it was too far away.

“Hmm.”

Ian thought things over for a while and thought of a plan. It was simple but certain.

‘That’s the only way.’

Ian had made a decision, and now he only had to act. Ian sat down and begin his mana breaths to enter his mind world.

Ian’s soul entered the mind word, and the souls that Ian had inevitably swallowed during his return to the original dimension slept there.

‘I had decreased the number significantly.’

Ian had returned them one by one, and the pink space had been filled with sleeping souls a while ago like Fran Page’s.

“So...this boy...”

Ian looked for the boy in this dimension and found him in a corner. Ian woke him up.