Embracing Magic - E.M Chapter 144 (Part 2)

Harrison stepped forward and led the group into the room. Rodin’s party followed closely behind, with the Marquess of Richmond next in line. After them came the administrator and other members of the Richmond family, trailing in a noisy group.

The interior was immaculate. Every item was neatly organized, and there was barely any dust to be seen.

However, this didn’t mean that Harrison Richmond, the young lord, had a particularly clean personality.

In a noble household like the Richmonds’, cleaning rooms was the responsibility of servants and maids. Since he didn’t clean it himself, it wasn’t possible to judge the personality of the room’s owner based solely on the state of the room.

“Hmm.”

Rodin scanned the objects in the room. A few artifacts caught his eye.

‘Not this one.’

Rodin picked up each artifact briefly before setting it back down. The short time he spent with each was enough to discern their nature.

There was nothing special. The artifacts were the kind that could still be purchased with enough money, as they were produced by the Magic Tower.

‘Then it must be over there.’

Rodin’s gaze shifted to the right-hand wall near the entrance. He could sense a large cluster of magical energy emanating from that area.

“Is this everything?”

“Y-Yes? The artifacts? Well…”

Harrison Richmond hesitated to speak.

He didn’t want to show the treasures he had collected to anyone. In fact, no one in his family even knew about all the artifacts he had amassed.

But the person before him was a Grand Mage. Whether or not he should try to deceive him was one thing, but Harrison wasn’t even sure he could deceive him.

“You’re hesitating. I suppose I’ll have to help you make a decision. Open that cabinet over there.”

“Ah!”

Harrison Richmond’s eyes shook violently. Rodin chuckled faintly and continued to stare at the cabinet.

“Go on.”

“Understood.”

The young lord manipulated something on the ornamental cabinet beside the door. Then, the cabinet opened smoothly, as if it were a hinged door.

Despite the cabinet’s heavy doors, there was almost no noise as they opened. It was clear how much effort had gone into oiling and maintaining it.

“I’ll take a look.”

“Y-Yes, Grand Mage.”

Rodin slowly examined the interior of the open cabinet.

As expected, the cabinet was filled with numerous artifacts. Bracelets, necklaces, belts, and daggers—various forms of artifacts were displayed in neat rows.

‘So it’s those. And it’s not just one.’

At the center of the cabinet was a horse-shaped figurine, one that Rodin had inspected and discarded in the past. The problem was that there were a few other items that appeared to be from the same era and region as the figurine, all linked to the Bolas Kingdom.

‘Four in total. I destroyed one, so that leaves three.’

Rodin momentarily shifted his gaze away from the figurines, deciding to inspect them later. Instead, he turned his attention to the other items.

“They’re all ancient relics. It must not have been easy to collect them.”

“Yes. Collecting artifacts is a hobby of mine, so I’ve been working hard at it.”

Rodin picked up each artifact in turn and set them back down. He took slightly more time with these than the ones outside, but the difference wasn’t significant.

Then he stopped when he picked up a dagger. This particular dagger didn’t belong to the “ancient” category—it was from a time much earlier than that.

“This is…”

“I couldn’t identify it. But it’s clearly an old relic, so I bought it for a hefty price.”

“I see.”

Rodin calmly set the dagger down, pretending as if it didn’t matter to him. However, he subtly left a faint trace of his magic on the artifact.

‘It’s a relic of Frouval.’

The runic magic circle structure of the artifact was unlike anything from the Magic Empire or other ancient artifacts. It was an extremely efficient design, minimizing the waste of magical energy.

As far as Rodin knew, only Frouval could create artifacts of this level.

‘I’m curious.’

He wanted to grab the dagger and examine it immediately. He was itching to uncover what mysteries lay hidden within.

‘Calm down. It’s not the right time.’

He forcibly suppressed his curiosity. Now was not the moment to investigate the dagger.

Shifting his attention away from the dagger, he continued examining the other artifacts one by one. Soon, he paused again.

‘This looks like a relic of the Bolas Kingdom.’

It was a very small pendant, about the size of a button on a piece of clothing, and it even resembled a button in shape.

The figurines he was here to investigate were relics of the Bolas Kingdom. This pendant also appeared to be one of their relics.

‘Could there be a connection?’

This, too, wasn’t something he could confirm right away. Deciding to leave it for later, Rodin resumed examining the remaining artifacts.

The magical level of the artifacts was high—higher than what the current Magic Tower could produce.

Invisibility, Wind Cutter, Levitation, Silence, and other spells.

These were artifacts imbued with magic ranging from the third to the fifth circle, the kind that couldn’t be purchased with an ordinary amount of money.

“Oh-ho.”

Letting out a small exclamation, Rodin picked up one of the figurines. It was the horse-shaped figurine whose internal passageway he had previously damaged.

‘The interior is just as I left it.’

Setting the horse figurine down, he picked up a griffin-shaped figurine next. Upon inspection, he confirmed that the magic circle within was intact.

‘The soul is still sealed inside, as expected.’

This figurine hadn’t been activated by anyone yet. In other words, the griffin figurine wasn’t connected to the incident.

Next, he picked up a cow-shaped figurine. Like the griffin figurine, its interior was intact, and the soul inside remained sealed.

Finally, he picked up the rat-shaped figurine. Upon examining its interior, he noticed something different.

‘The soul has been released. There are traces of the passageway being used.’

Someone had activated this figurine using the correct method. Whether they had done so intentionally or by accident, the soul within the figurine had been released into the outside world.

‘Is it still alive? Or has it perished?’

Activating a figurine didn’t guarantee that the soul inside could possess someone. The conditions for such possession were quite strict, and failure was far more likely.

“That one, I…”

“I know what it is. Let’s talk outside.”

Rodin picked up all four figurines. They were small enough that he could easily hold two in each hand.

Afterward, he glanced at the pendant, which appeared to be from the same era as the Bolas Kingdom figurines, and deliberated for a moment.

Should he take it with him or leave it behind?

After a brief moment of thought, he decided to take it with him.

‘I’ll come back for the dagger later.’

The dagger of Frouval was something he couldn’t let anyone else have. He knew it was selfish, but he wanted to keep it to himself.

Hyung_Otaku2

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