Embracing Magic - E.M Chapter 163 (Part 1)

Rodin decided to stay with Tower Master Tamia, but he hadn’t completely let his guard down.

This was only their second meeting. The time they’d spent together was far too short to build trust.

Besides, someone of the stature of a Tower Master from Chronoa Tower wouldn’t have arrived three days early just to observe a territory war. If she could use teleportation magic, Tamia could have moved just a few hours in advance and still arrived on time.

‘She must be curious about me too.’

Rodin wasn’t overly worried. He wasn’t such a simple person that one could grasp everything about him just by spending a few days together.

Dinner time arrived.

Larry and Bianca, who had stepped out for a bit, returned.

“Who’s the grandma?”

“Oh my, who is this adorable child?”

“They’re my younger siblings.”

Rodin introduced his siblings, and his escorts Karis and Jena, to Tower Master Tamia.

Tower Master Tamia gave no attention to anyone else and stared only at Bianca. She had noticed that, aside from Rodin, Bianca was the only magician among them.

‘As expected of a magician.’

Just like swordsmen had their own kind of kinship, gathering among themselves and often displaying a tendency to push magicians aside—

The Marquessate of Richmond was a prime example of such a territory. Swordsmen gathered together, and magicians were not treated particularly well.

But the tendency to form exclusive cliques was even stronger among magicians.

Magicians had no interest in swordsmen. Even if a master appeared somewhere, they’d react with a ‘So what?’ kind of attitude.

Tower Master Tamia was exactly the same. Apart from Bianca, who was a magician, she treated everyone else as inanimate objects.

“You said you’re here to observe the territory war, so I’ll be staying until then.”

“Okay. Hello, Grandma. I’m Bianca.”

“Yes, Bianca. Nice to meet you. If there’s ever anything you want from this old woman, just say so.”

“Hehehe, it’s okay. Big Brother Rodin buys me everything I need.”

Bianca smiled sweetly as she declined.

Tower Master Tamia stroked Bianca’s head, then looked back at Rodin.

“Mage Rodin, you’re no mercenary.”

“I am a mercenary, though?”

“I’ve never seen a mercenary travel with their family. Mercenaries do dangerous work.”

What she said wasn’t wrong. If someone was doing dangerous work with their family, then either they weren’t truly family, or they weren’t truly mercenaries.

But Rodin was a great mage. In contrast, his siblings were only just now becoming Iron-tier mercenaries.

With requests at the Iron-tier level, Rodin was confident he could handle any danger they might face.

“Ah! Is that what you meant? But these kids are mercenaries too.”

“Hohoho. If it were me, I wouldn’t let my family become mercenaries.”

“I never told them to. They said they wanted to. And I don’t want to stop my siblings from doing what they want.”

“So you’re the type who raises your siblings to be strong.”

While they were exchanging light conversation, the food was brought in. Tower Master Tamia immediately picked up her spoon.

“Let’s eat. I don’t like wasting time in front of food.”

“Me neither.”

They began their meal right away.

Rodin and Tower Master Tamia’s dining styles were polar opposites.

Rodin ate each bite slowly and thoroughly, savoring every mouthful. Even a single spoonful seemed to carry a sense of sincerity.

On the other hand, Tamia consumed her food at an incredible speed. Since the annex had five rooms, food for fifteen people had been served, and Tamia devoured about four servings in an instant.

“The food is good. Seems like the best among the inns around here.”

Tamia spoke up, but no one responded. Everyone was focused on their meals.

Because of Rodin’s eating habits, Larry and Bianca also tended to eat slowly and savor their food.

So even Bianca, who only ate about one serving, took nearly twenty minutes to finish her meal. As for Rodin and Larry, who ate more—it went without saying.

“Phew, it was especially tasty today.”

“You take your time with meals.”

“Yes. I’ve developed this eating habit because of Big Brother Rodin.”

“Chewing thoroughly is important.”

Their long meal finally came to an end.

Rodin set the empty dishes outside and opened a book.

Bianca started studying math, and Larry went out to spar with Karis.

“Mage Rodin, I met the Marquess of Richmond yesterday.”

“I see. Did he tell you anything?”

“He told me in much greater detail about what you had roughly mentioned. The curse, the Rotten Marquess’s house, the ancient soul—all of it.”

Rodin had already expected that Tower Master Tamia would meet the Marquess of Richmond. After hearing about the curse and the ancient soul, it wasn’t something the Mage Towers would just overlook.

Especially the Four Great Towers—those who viewed themselves as the continent’s protectors.

An ancient soul, something that made no sense, had appeared, and they didn’t even check? That would be negligence of duty.

“Do you believe what I said?”

“The Marquess of Richmond confirmed it.”

“Confirmed it?”

“He said he burned the statue that contained the soul which had possessed that healer—was it Sagan? Sagan screamed in agony as if he were really thrown into the flames, and in the end, he died.”

Back when Rodin had seen him, Sagan’s body was already deteriorating. Even without the statue, the chances of him surviving were low.

“I see.”

“You said you suspect the Rotten Marquess himself is also an ancient soul?”

“Yes. That’s what I believe.”

“When you first told me about the ancient soul, I couldn’t believe it. Even now, after hearing it from the Marquess of Richmond’s own mouth, I’m still not sure.”

Rodin didn’t understand Tower Master Tamia’s reaction.

She spoke as though she lacked any knowledge of black magic.

It was hard to believe the Four Great Towers had so little information.

“You don’t know about soul sealing?”

“Hoo… to be honest, I didn’t. Now I do.”

“What do you mean, ‘now you do’?”

“I went back to the Tower and looked through the records. Just as you said, there was content about black magic that seals souls.”

She only looked it up now? That meant she hardly ever read the records in the Tower.

‘If it’s one of the Four Great Towers, they must have incredibly important materials.’

And yet, those very materials were all sitting there unread and gathering dust. Why weren’t they reading them?

For Rodin, who was borderline addicted to the written word, it was incomprehensible.

“I see. You must be tired after traveling back to the Tower.”

“With teleportation, something like that isn’t tiring. But tell me, Rodin—where do you think the Rotten Marquess would’ve hidden the statue? Would he carry it around? Or hide it somewhere?”

“Does that matter?”

Tower Master Tamia’s question wasn’t particularly important.

The Rotten Marquess wasn’t a lich who had to have their life vessel destroyed to be killed. He was just a man inhabited by a soul that had crossed a long stretch of time.

So even if they didn’t find the statue, it didn’t matter. Once the Rotten Marquess was killed, the soul would disappear along with him anyway.

Certainly! Here’s the faithful, word-for-word English translation of the provided Korean light novel passage, Embracing Magic. Cultural terms have been preserved with notes where necessary, and original structure is maintained for accuracy.

“Mage Rodin, you intend to kill Marquis Rotten no matter what, don’t you.”

“Of course, that’s my intention.”

Hyung_Otaku2

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