The Great Mage Returns After 4000 Years

It was before he could even respond.

This time, his head snapped to the side. He had been slapped. Though it seemed like a palm strike, his vision went dark as if he'd been hit by a hammer.

She had asked those questions only to follow it up with violence again.

It might seem absurd, but instead of trembling in anger, Residue realized another truth.

Pale appeared to be asking questions, but she had no intention of engaging in a conversation.

Her words just now weren’t directed at anyone but herself. They were more like murmurs, or perhaps complaints.

Smack… Thud… Smack.

The violence continued.

This indiscriminate and chaotic violence tore Residue’s body apart irregularly. The punches, devoid of any consideration, didn’t hesitate even when they struck lethal vital points.

Yet even amidst the unbearable waves of pain, his mind remained clear. And because of that, he could be certain of one thing.

─He couldn't play dumb.

He couldn’t say things like, “I’m Lukas Trowman, what are you talking about? Don’t misunderstand.”

He couldn’t even spit out such empty excuses.

The certainty in Pale’s beatings left no room for doubt.

As mentioned before, he understood how this woman thought of Lukas.

If even the slightest part of her thought he was Lukas, there was no way she would unleash such violence, which was no better than venting her rage.

Smack!

A fierce kick landed squarely in the center of his chest.

Residue’s body was flung like a cannonball, smashing through the walls of the mansion and thrown outside. He fell from the second-floor height, rolling down the back of the dragon.

“…Cough.”

A pain so intense, it felt as if his heart had stopped.

No, it might have actually stopped. Even breathing was a struggle.

Shhhhh—

The torrential rain continued to pour down.

As Residue tried to stand up, coughing blood, his hand slipped, and he fell face-first to the ground again.

...Really hate this weather.

In the meantime, Pale jumped down from the second floor.

Clank, her entire body became encased in a pale suit of armor. Only her helmet remained absent. Her disheveled hair, soaked from the rain, clung to her face almost immediately.

"Speak."

"......"

"I said speak. Who are you?"

A muttered voice reached him.

…The nerve of her, demanding answers without giving him a chance to speak.

Staggering, with unsteady steps that looked like she might collapse at any moment, Pale closed the distance.

There was no longer any choice.

She was one of the Four Knights, and this body belonged to Lukas, and because he knew their history…

If he tried to avoid this fight any longer, he might truly die here.

So he had to fight.

Tsszzzt!

Electricity sparked. Rumble, as if resonating with Residue’s will, thunder crackled within the storm clouds the dragon was weaving through.

Flash! In that moment, a streak of lightning lit up Pale’s face.

“……!”

Residue,

Lowered his hands.

Smack!

This time, he was kicked again. It felt like he’d lost a molar. It hurt.

Before he could spit out the fragments of his broken teeth, he was hit on the opposite side. The shattered teeth scraped the inside of his mouth like glass shards. …It hurt.

Gag. Unable to hold back, he coughed out a sticky, unpleasant mixture of blood.

“Where is he?”

His arm was stomped on.

Crack, the bone shattered like withered leaves.

“Where is he?”

Next, his left shinbone was crushed.

Since his right knee had already been destroyed earlier, standing on both feet any time soon seemed impossible.

“Where is he?”

Finally, his neck was grabbed.

Pale’s hand gripped his throat like a hook, refusing to let go. Truly a deranged woman. His airway was nearly blocked, making it difficult not just to speak but even to breathe. Even a creature with ten lungs wouldn’t be able to utter a word in this state.

But on the other hand,

Even if he could speak, what could he say?

This wasn’t someone he could reason with in the first place.

“You can't… meet him anymore…”

Even so, Residue forced himself to croak out the words.

“He’s… gone…”

“……”

“Even if you kill me… that fact won’t… change…”

Smack! Before he could finish his sentence, a searing pain exploded across his face.

Pale had headbutted him. It felt like his nose had been shattered.

"Cut the bullshit and talk. How did you get your hands on this body?"

"…Blue Knight Pale. You should already know."

At least his throat loosened up a bit, allowing Residue to speak more clearly than before.

"…Do you think it’s even possible to steal his body…? Even the Ruler couldn’t manage such a thing…."

"……."

"He handed it over willingly… to me—"

Smack.

This time, her fist slammed into his solar plexus.

The punch, tightly wrapped in her gauntlet, carried the kind of force that left no doubt about its power. Residue doubled over, dry-heaving in pain.

"Where is he?"

Like a broken doll, she kept repeating the same question.

Through his flickering vision, Residue looked up at her.

"...First."

"What?"

"The first reason… you said it was the expression."

"……."

He was referring to the basis on which she had seen through his identity.

Of course, it wasn’t the time to be saying such things, but he smiled anyway, baring blood-stained teeth.

"Then, what’s the second and third reason?"

The corners of Pale’s lips twitched.

It seemed like she wanted to laugh, or at least produce a sneer. But such a thing was impossible. Since the moment she stepped out of the mansion, there was no room left for a smile on Pale’s face. Residue knew that the water dripping down her face wasn’t just rain.

"There aren't any."

'Stupid woman.'

As Residue’s grin deepened,

The violence descended upon him once again.

***

The mind and body are indeed tightly connected.

For someone like Residue, who had spent so long as a transcendent being, it hadn’t been a significant truth. But now, things were different. He wasn’t existing in flesh and blood; he was inhabiting a body.

He acknowledged it.

The mind could not be entirely free from the influence of the body.

Smack!

He didn’t even have the strength to open his eyes.

…How much time had passed?

Residue neither resisted nor acted out to protect himself.

Curling up to reduce the pain even slightly, wasn't that too unsightly?

Thud, thud, smack…

However, he couldn't remain silent forever.

It wasn’t that he had succumbed to the violence. He simply felt that if this continued, he might really die.

And that was a result he absolutely had to avoid. So, Residue opened his mouth to speak.

—Lukas left for a faraway place to prevent the Destruction, and now his responsibilities have fallen to me.

He couldn’t reveal everything.

But at the same time, he couldn’t lie completely either.

In the end, Residue seemed to cobble together an explanation within the limits of what he could safely say.

The reaction he received was cold.

─Who are you to do that?

─Don't you already know....... Who I am.......

—…….

In that moment, as he watched Pale’s expression, Residue clearly felt the inherent instability of the Four Knights.

The storm of emotions passed in an instant, leaving behind a flood of questions.

Why did he leave?

If he left, where did he go?

Why didn’t he say anything to me?

Did he not trust me?

Why, why, why, why?

…….

…….

—Why did he entrust it… to someone like you?

Squelch.

His face was pressed into a puddle of water.

Residue was surprised to realize he was still alive. But there were two reasonable explanations for that.

The first was that Lukas’s body was far sturdier than expected. A body honed through countless hardships in his lifetime, indeed.

The second was that Pale’s violence lacked purpose.

She wasn’t trying to destroy him,

Nor was she trying to disable certain parts of his body,

And she certainly wasn’t trying to kill him.

There was no intent behind her actions.

Staggering, Pale approached again. As she came close, Residue braced himself for the next wave of pain.

"……."

But no matter how long he waited, the pain didn’t come.

Squelch. The sound of water splashing echoed once more.

Forcing his barely responsive eyes open, Residue saw Pale, kneeling on the ground.

Shhhhh-

Through his half-lidded eyes, Residue gazed at her.

"…Everyone looks at me the same way."

"……."

"Did you know? I can tell. I can always tell what someone is thinking when they look at me. It’s not much of a skill, really. Anyone could develop it, living like I have for a time far longer than billions of years."

Her voice was hollow, void of life, a tone that didn’t suit her at all. She sounded like someone whose vitality had completely drained away.

"Fear and suspicion aren’t things you can hide with a fake smile. Just because your voice doesn’t tremble, doesn’t mean you can conceal your unease?"

Like encountering a wild beast in a dark forest, or realizing you’re standing next to a bomb just before it explodes.

Whether weak beings, strong beings, or all other beings, they all treated Pale that way.

As if she were an uncontrollable mad dog.

…Except for one person.

But now…

"…When you, with that body, that face, and those eyes, looked at me in that way, how do you think I felt?"

She could tolerate it from anyone else.

From anyone else, it didn’t even itch anymore, not after all this time.

But… there was one person who shouldn’t have done so.

Even if it was a stolen body, a borrowed body, or as he claimed, an inherited body.

Not with that face. Not with that face.

"…I know."

Her voice now seemed on the verge of breaking.

"I know this is really Lukas's body. How could I not know? So."

Pale stopped speaking and took a small, deliberate breath.

In that fleeting moment, Residue caught a glimpse of her eyes. For the first time, he clearly saw her emotions.

Because he was once the Ruler, he couldn’t miss it.

Fear.

"I'll believe everything, so tell me. Where is Lukas?"

It was then that he understood.

This woman didn’t believe a word he had said.

She wasn’t convinced by the explanation that he had gone to a 'faraway place'. Instead, she was considering the worst possible scenario.

Death.

"……."

…If Residue were to speak the truth here,

if he said that Lukas Trowman, the only person capable of controlling the Destruction, had gone 'outside' to handle it, and that Residue had inherited his body.

Pale would believe him.

Her interest in Residue would vanish in an instant, and she would no longer concern herself with him. From Residue’s perspective, this would be the most advantageous outcome.

However,

afterward, this woman would leave for the 'outside' without hesitation.

Without considering the cost, without delay, she would leave.

And then she would die.

She would meet the most miserable end imaginable at the hands of Lukas, who had now become the Lord of Destruction.

"……."

Residue chose silence.

Even knowing how Pale might interpret this silence, he kept his mouth shut.

Shhhhh-

The sound of rain.

The irritating sound of rain hammered at his eardrums.

The silence stretched on. It felt impossibly long. At least, to Residue, it did.

Eventually, his consciousness began to fade. He felt like he might pass out at any moment.

He had lost too much blood.

No, perhaps it wasn’t just blood he had lost.

"─uh."

Just as his awareness blurred further, a faint voice seeped into his waning consciousness.

"Ugh, hic, hng."

Forcing his eyes to move, Residue looked up at Pale.

It would be a lie to say he wasn’t surprised in that moment.

"Uah, aah, uh, ah."

Her voice came out in short, broken bursts, disconnected and intermittent.

"Uah, aah, ah─"

And then, as it connected, it turned into the sound of a child’s cry.

Her reddened, swollen eyes faced the heavens as she opened her mouth wide,

—and Blue Knight Pale burst into tears.

"Uwaaaaah-"

Her wailing was so loud that even the torrential rain and the rumbling thunder couldn’t drown it out.

Like a child who had lost their parents, trembling in vague fear without understanding the full extent of what they’d lost,

Pale sobbed uncontrollably as she was overcome by an all-consuming fear.

"I... hate... this."

Her voice, interrupted by hiccups, continued.

"I don’t… want this. I hate this… Lukas…."

It was a voice choked with tears.

"Give him, back. Give him, back. Please."

Residue recalled their brief conversation from earlier.

'...There aren't any second or third reasons?'

What an obvious lie.

If she wanted to, this woman could list over a hundred reasons to explain the unease she had felt about Residue.

...The sound of the downpour had stopped, but an even more irritating sound could be heard.

Residue closed his eyes while looking at the ink-black sky.

Really hate this weather.