Embracing Magic - E.M Chapter 178 (Part 1)

The knight’s explanation wasn’t much.

A rural village had suffered a massacre, with all its residents killed, and a small military force had been dispatched to investigate.
However, that unit had also been wiped out, and yet another village had been completely devastated. The majority of the villagers had died again, and the buildings were set ablaze.

As similar incidents repeated several times, it eventually led to the deployment of a full order of knights.

There were two points that Rodin found puzzling.

First, despite killing so many people, there seemed to be no benefit gained from it.

The attacker killed all the villagers and burned down the buildings. Yet, not a single item of value in the village had been touched.
No one had been kidnapped either. The perpetrator had simply killed and burned, nothing more.

The second puzzling part was the eyewitness testimony.

“Are you saying a single person committed all this?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. That’s what the eyewitness accounts claim.”

“What on earth would drive someone to commit such atrocious acts? Who could they possibly be?”

“We apologize, Your Majesty. We have yet to identify the identity of the fiend.”

Even the knights didn’t know the culprit’s identity. A sketch had been made, but it was extremely vague. So much so that they weren’t even confident they’d recognize the person even if they passed by right in front of them.

“Were any of the victims killed nearby?”

“Pardon?”

“I asked whether the place where the fiend committed murder is far from here.”

Rodin wasn’t planning to involve himself if the fiend was far away. Even a Grand Mage couldn’t respond to every incident happening at a distance.

However, if the incident had occurred nearby—or if there was a chance the fiend could harm their group—he was prepared to take action, even if it was a hassle.

“It’s about two hours from here.”

“Two hours on horseback… What direction?”

“If you continue down this road, you’ll reach it.”

“Then we’ll pass by it anyway. Scott, let’s move. Knights, follow us as well—if you want to see what this so-called culprit looks like.”

Rodin reentered the carriage. He assumed Queen Regina had something in mind too and got back in.

Only after that did the knights recall that Rodin was a Grand Mage. Perhaps he had methods they themselves lacked.

“Escort the queen of our allied kingdom. We’re heading to Luxen Village.”

“Yes, Commander.”

And so, the party continued forward, receiving a kind of escort that wasn’t quite an escort. Their pace quickened slightly.

It may have been two hours on horseback, but for the group moving with a carriage, it took much longer.
They barely arrived at Luxen Village as the sun began to set—almost five hours later.

Luxen Village was in disarray. It seemed the corpses had all been removed, as none were visible. Instead, a dozen soldiers were running about, managing the site.

Throughout the ride, Rodin had been devising a spell in his mind. He thought it was possible, but to cast the spell he intended, he needed to review it one more time.

‘It’ll work.’

The carriage stopped once they had reached the center of the village.
Queen Regina tightly shut her eyes at the sight of the charred remains of the village.

“It’s all burned down.”

“Yes. The culprit burned everything before vanishing.”

“One person did all this… It couldn’t have been easy, and yet they went this far.”

“That’s what confuses us as well.”

While the two conversed, Rodin stepped down from the carriage. As he calmly looked around, it was as if the horrific massacre played itself out in his mind.

“Grand Mage, if you need the corpses, we’ll retrieve them.”

“No. I don’t need the corpses. Instead, please gather all the soldiers. The knights as well.”

“Understood.”

Rodin wasn’t trying to examine traces of the bodies. He intended to extract the memory of the place—the memory of the event that occurred here.

“All gather here!”

“Soldiers, gather up!”

“Form up! Form up!”

The knights’ calls brought the soldiers together one by one. Their faces were full of questions, but none of them asked directly.

“The reason I asked everyone to gather is that you’ll need to see their face yourselves. You must see the fiend’s face to find them, right?”

“Can we even see it?”

“There’s a spell among 7th-circle magic called Memory of the Earth. It allows one to witness specific memories contained within the land. I’ll combine it with illusion magic so that you all can witness the scene as it happened.”

After finishing his explanation, Rodin’s gaze shifted to Queen Regina.

She returned his look with a puzzled expression.

“Mage Rodin, is there something you need to say to me?”

“I plan to reproduce the scene exactly as it happened. It will be horrific.”

“Ah, that’s what you meant. I’ll be fine. Though this is not my own country, I am still someone involved in political affairs. I have a duty to witness not only the noble and virtuous but also the vile, disgusting, and dangerous.”

Though Queen Regina’s resolve was firm, Rodin couldn’t be sure it would hold to the end.

Rodin turned his gaze from the queen to the carriage. He fixed his eyes on the five-year-old prince inside.

“Ah—Beca, please tend to the prince.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Inside the carriage, the maid would surely soothe the prince well. Believing that, Rodin turned back to the knight.

“How long has it been since the incident occurred?”

“We estimate three days have passed, though we’re not certain. There’s barely anything left intact.”

“Three days… I understand.”

Rodin closed his eyes and raised his concentration. He recited runes under his breath, while mentally tracing and verifying their meanings.

It was a 7th-circle spell he had never used before. Even for Rodin, it would be difficult to succeed without complete focus.

“…Memory of the Earth.”

He activated the spell. Images of the past began to surface in Rodin’s mind.

‘Go further back.’

He first saw the knights arrive and begin inspecting the area. That was long after the incident had taken place.

He rewound further. The rate of mana consumption surged dramatically.

‘At most, I can see ten days back.’

Memory of the Earth was a spell with inherently high mana consumption. The older the memory, the more exponentially the mana cost increased.

With Rodin’s current mana, he could see roughly ten days into the past at best. If he needed to add illusion magic, the limit would be nine days.

‘Further back.’

He rewound past the knights’ arrival.

This time, he saw soldiers arriving at the village, looking stunned. Their faces were full of despair—it was pitiful to watch.

‘Even further.’

He went back one more day. The mana drain became terrifyingly fast.

‘That’s him.’

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