21st Century Archmage

“Kuaaaghhh!”

“Uwahhhhh! T-The priests have killed someone!”

In the Imperial Capital, the seat of the Laviter Imperial Family, the ominous rumor that the Crown Prince died from receiving treatment from priests spread. There was also a ridiculous rumor that the gods had retracted holy power from the corrupt priests in order to punish them spreading like wildfire through the streets.

However, many among those who needed treatment went to the temples nevertheless, doubting the rumors. Among those temples, the Temple of the Goddess of Blessings, Semire, had the greatest healing capability and was always crowded with the ill. Despite their expensive fees, because the treatment they offered was effective and reliable, nobles and middle class-citizens alike sought their assistance.

As expected of the Temple of Semire in the Imperial Capital, the building was grand without equal, standing out from the miscellaneous buildings around it. It was so huge and splendid that some even said that the Temple was bigger than the circular stadium in the Capital.

“All visitors, please leave!”

The Temple had already become very sensitive due to the Crown Prince’s death. When a merchant receiving treatment suddenly died, frothing at the mouth, several dozen paladins standing guard outside the temple ran in.

“Th-The Temple is closing its doors for the day. Please come back tomorrow.”

The priest in charge of the Temple of Semire, a man by the name of Hermos, came out upon hearing the merchant’s dying scream, and after checking the situation, he announced that the Temple would be closing down for the day.

“What’s going on?! Why did a perfectly fine person die while receiving treatment?!”

“Will we be in danger, too?!”

The infirmary of the huge temple was an open space because various priests walked around treating the patients. There, people who had been receiving treatment or preparing to be treated raised an uproar of complaints.

“This matter will be handled in its entirety by our temple. Please leave, we will inform everyone of any developments as soon as possible.”

The temples in the Laviter Capital were in a state of emergency because of what had happened in the Imperial Palace. The Palace hadn’t given an official statement yet, but if it was revealed that the priests the temples had dispatched were directly connected to the Crown Prince’s death, it would be a fiasco of unimaginable scale.

“I am the eldest son of the Itarl Viscount House, Lord Salton. Is the rumor true? Is it true that the gods each temple serves have replaced the holy power in the corrupt priests’ hands with curses in order to punish them?!”

“Where do you think you are?! Cease your ludicrous words!” The paladins turned dark with rage upon hearing Lord Salton’s irreverent words.

“What did you say?! How dare mere paladins run their mouths carelessly to a noble of the Empire! I see there is no doubt that you truly are corrupt servants!”

Cla-cla-clang!

In response to being harshly rebuked, Salton, a noble scion in line to continue the Viscount house, bellowed in rage, and the two knights who were escorting him drew their swords.

Cla-cla-cla-clang!

Once swords were drawn within the temple, the paladins also bared their weapons just as quickly.

Salton removed the glove on his hand and flung it at the paladin standing at the front.

“Unsheathing a sword before a knight is akin to asking for a duel. By my right as a knight appointed by His Majesty the Emperor himself, I wish to request a duel from you!”

“Ah…” cried out Priest Hermos, shocked by the incredibly quick turn of events.

Nothing like this had ever happened before. He had never heard of a knight, a position the people hailed as the ‘Empire’s honor’, and a temple paladin dueling on temple grounds. They were both holding their swords to protect their honor, but the honor the temples and the Empire protected were different in nature. In addition, it wasn’t official, but there was an unwritten law that regular knights and paladins wouldn’t interfere with one another.

“What, scared? Is the life you’ve gained by selling sacred holy power so great that you’ve even thrown away your pride as a knight? Huhuhu.”

Salton continued to provoke the paladins and priests like a man determined to die. The eyes of the people who had come to receive treatment glinted. They hadn’t been able to complain, but getting treatment for an average illness was only possible by donating anywhere from several dozen to several hundred Gold. As such, the high doorstep of the temple was out of reach for the commoner people.

The paladins turned red-faced. This was the Temple of Semire, a sanctified land that even the Emperor’s authority did not reach, yet this man named Salton dared to provoke their rage by uttering the open secret the Temple wanted to conceal.

“I accept your duel!”

Unable to hold back, the paladin crushed the glove with his heel.

“Hahaha!” Salton guffawed in triumph. He raised his sword and lowered his stance, then rushed forward with a grunt. “Huup!”

“Hah!”

And so, a duel broke out within the infirmary where the ill were treated. Struck speechless, Hermos went from deathly pale to blue in the face. Everything had progressed so suddenly, and all too coincidentally. It was already too late to settle the matter quietly.

Claaaaaaang!

The Aura Blades of the two knights clashed, producing the loud shriek of metal on metal. Salton had indeed claimed to be the son of a rural noble household, but it was undeniable that he was of noble blood. His sword was rather fierce. However, the paladins who guarded the temple in the Imperial Capital were the cream of the crop. After their swords clashed dozens of times in midair, a weakness was exposed in Salton’s defense.

Spurt!

“Gugh!”

A fatal hit landed. The paladin struck lightly towards the exposed gap in order to bring about his win with just enough force, but the moment he made the swing, Salton shifted and the sword plunged deeply into his neck. Shocked, the paladin hastily pulled out his sword. This was none other than the Temple of Semire. As long as it wasn’t an instant death, any injury could be immediately healed.

“…”

However, God did not permit the paladin’s intent to become reality. When he pulled out his sword, which was still shining blue with Aura Blade, his opponent’s neck was cut in half.

Spuuuuuuuuuuuurt.

A fountain of blood surged from the severed artery in the neck, arcing several meters into the air.

Thud.

With a single half-strangled scream, Salton slumped lifelessly to the ground.

“L-Lord Salton!!!!!!”

“You bastards!!!!!”

The knights of the Itarl Viscount House went completely mad with rage at the death of the lord they were bound to serve with their lives. They hurled themselves at the paladins, their swords in their hands.

Cla-cla-cla-clang.

And so, a continuation of the duel broke out.

“Gagh!”

“Agh!”

The knights of House Itarl charged forward madly, as if possessed, and were cut down by the paladins.

“AHHHHH! Paladins have killed knights in the Temple!”

“Q-Quickly inform the Capital Guard!!!”

The patients watching blankly on the side screamed as they scrambled out the temple.

“…”

The priests and paladins could only stare with dazed eyes. Even a nightmare would not be so gruesome. They were all so stunned by this disaster that had occurred on what should be the holy land of God that even ten mouths would not be enough to overcome their speechlessness.

“Quickly! Close the temple doors! And report to the Cardinal… that the Temple is in danger.”

A trembling voice came from Priest Hermos’ lips.

Ever since he was abandoned by his parents at six, he had lived his entire life in the temple. He knew the corruption of the temple, and he was able to reach his current position by gaining some degree of personal wealth by utilizing that corruption.

However, deep within his heart, his conscience had always been alive. He knew that it was not okay for the temple to continue in this manner.

He began to think that this catastrophe that had occurred in just a few days time was indeed the rage of God, meant to punish Her corrupt servants, just like the deceased Salton said.

* * *

* * *

Plip, plop, plip, plop.

‘It’s already the rainy season, huh…’

The rain had come. After going through spring in a frenetic rush, before I knew it, it was summer. With it, arrived the short rainy season that existed only in Nerman.

Plop plop, plop plop plop, plop plop plop.

I had worked on creating new 7th Circle magic formulas all night long, picking existing low-circle spells with simple formulas and spells that could be fused with the magic knowledge Master implanted in my head. Despite becoming a 7th Circle mage, as of late, I’ve been plagued with an inexplicable sense of anxiety.

The territory was slowly stabilizing, but there was still much to do. Nerman had been reorganized into administrative divisions, but the ties between the central cities and villages were not yet firmly established. The former structure had been so approximate and haphazard that it was impossible to set things straight right away. Moreover, we were suffering from a lack of specialized administrative personnel, something we couldn’t fix with any number of knights and soldiers. There were many young talents who wanted to come to Nerman to fulfill their dreams, but we were still short staffed.

“Nice weather today…”

I loved bright and sunny days too, but rainy days like this weren’t bad, either. Countless raindrops pittered and pattered onto the veranda. After reaching a new stage of mana understanding, natural phenomena no longer looked like one phenomenon to me anymore. Each splattering raindrop held the vitality of nature, and as they fused, a cycle of mana creation, fusion, and disassembly repeated again and again.

Clearing my head of other thoughts, I craned my ear to listen to the splendid orchestra of nature’s song, feeling languid peace for the first time in a while.

Today, the Continent was as quiet as my mood. The Laviter Empire’s troops were continuing to gather near the border in order to suppress Nerman, and within those forces were Skyknights from the Yukane and Baerkain Kingdoms, which had not moved up until this point.

The calm before the storm. That was the best expression to describe the current moment.

‘Bajran has become quiet now, and the other kingdoms are absorbed in recovering their lost forces.’

The kingdoms’ invasion of the Bajran Empire had ended without much fanfare. The Empire and the surrounding kingdoms had been waging a fierce battle of intense enmity not long ago, but they turned on a dime and returned to friendly relations. The young Emperor of the Bajran Empire and Princess Igis were not fools, so they were able to save the Empire from the chaos. Dozens of greater nobles and lower-ranking nobles who had made a mess of the Empire during Poltviran’s lead were expelled or demoted to commoner status, and their positions were filled with new nobles loyal to the Empire. No one knew how things would turn out later, but for now, the injection of new nobles was certainly enough to return the Empire to a state of vitality. Then, they signed peace treaties with the neighboring kingdoms that had been crushed under my heel. On account of everything having happened due to the former emperor, Poltviran, Bajran did not demand reparations for the crime of invading the Empire.

‘Recovering their forces should keep the kingdoms busy for the next few decades.’

You could draft farmers to create a half-decent infantry in a few months’ time, but it took at least five years in order to get a wyvern ready for battle. Currently, wyverns couldn’t even be bought with money. Because they had to raise them purely from the egg and raise them over time, the kingdoms would need several decades in order to recover enough forces to wage war again.

‘Once the rainy season ends, the crops will grow well.’

For the people living on the Kallian Continent, avoiding hunger was the most important matter. Unlike the 21st century, the Kallian people did not require much—they were satisfied as long as they had a house to escape the rain and cold as well as a daily life free of hunger. Of course, that wasn’t enough to sate the nobles, but the ordinary people were simple and weren’t very greedy.

‘We’ll distribute the supplies thoroughly, just as planned.’

I didn’t mean to endorse communism, but I wanted to fulfill the physical needs of my people. Unlike other kingdoms or territories, Nerman produced an abundance of goods. Ordinary merchants from the Continent could no longer go to each village and carry out trade like before. With the exception of the amount they needed for taxes, each village would sell all the goods they produced to purchasing officials dispatched by the territory during set trading times. Villagers could then go to the central city of their administrative district to buy the goods they needed. Essential items purchased from regular Kallian merchants would be sold at slightly lower prices.

A place free of worry for one’s survival, a territory where you could earn as much as you wanted and become happy. That was the mainstay of the paradise I dreamed of.

‘I’m sure we’ve piled up a lot of gold bars, too.’

In order to purchase Nerman goods, merchants had to bring Kallian coins and convert them to Nerman bills. The converted coins were immediately shipped off to blast furnaces to be turned into gold bars. Each currency had a different ratio of gold to alloy, but in any case, the gold bars were steadily being stacked up in our treasury.

‘Let’s see how long you Corvain bastards can hold out. Huhuhu.’

With the Ataivan Merchants resuming trade with us as a trigger, the rest of the merchant groups bowed their heads. Other than the Rubis Merchants, they all paid a 10 million Gold deposit to sign trade agreements with Nerman. However, the Corvain Merchants that were centered around the Laviter Empire had not yet made an appearance. I was sure they were greedy for Nerman’s products, but they were probably unable to make a move out of fear for how the Empire might react.

However, they would have to bow their heads before long. All other things aside, if they weren’t able to jump on the Nerman salt trade currently taking the Continent by storm, the merchant group would take a big blow. Nerman’s natural salt had spread to every corner of Kallian within just a few months. We had developed another large-scale salt farm recently in order to keep up with the demand. As a result, the merchant groups that had previously held a monopoly with thermal and rock salt strove to be the first to list Nerman salt among their wares. The mass production and dominance of Nerman salt was progressing at an even faster rate than I expected.

‘They say thousands of people come into Nerman in a day.’

Once trade with the merchants became lively, the number of mercenaries guarding them increased dramatically as well. Having expended their forces on war, the Bajran Empire, Havis, and the other kingdoms were unable to pay attention to public security, allowing monsters and bandits to flourish. There were many places in the kingdoms that had not yet been developed, and no other place had an official road to speak of like in Nerman. That was one of the aftereffects of war that the Continent was suffering from.

‘The combined city of the elves and dwarves is functioning very well… Other than the Laviter Empire, everything’s a bowl of cherries.’

As I gazed at the falling raindrops, I reviewed the Nerman issues that came one by one to mind. The elves who had previously refused to leave their mountains now frequently slept in the village they had created with the dwarves or spent most of their day there. The elves’ harpies flying through Nerman was a frequent sight. Unlike humans, the elves didn’t initiate trouble or pick fights. They were happy enough with the freedom to fly whenever and wherever they wanted, and the people no longer sent sideways glances at the elves and dwarves. They knew how great a role the demihumans had played in creating the current Nerman. The peace-starved people of Nerman were also fully cognizant that the mere existence of the dwarves and elves was a source of great strength for the territory.

“Those damn bastards…”

The only thing I had no answer for was the Laviter Empire. The number of Laviter Skyknights, cavalry, and even regular infantry lining up on the other side of the Kovilan Mountains was enough to cover all of Nerman with men to spare. According to the information I had heard so far, an enormous force of over 1,500 wyverns was arrayed, including the Skyknights of the powerless Yukane and Baerkain Kingdoms. It was a massive force that could send us to hell in one sweep if we were even a little careless.

“And where the hell did all the tower masters of the magic towers go?”

Laviter was a thorn in my side, but I didn’t slack on gathering information about the rest of the Continent. According to the intelligence we acquired from the Rubis Merchants and the information merchant dispatched by the black merchants, Saker, all of the Continent’s tower masters had disappeared.

Something felt off to me. The tower masters enjoyed power and wealth no less than an emperor simply by sitting within their magic towers, yet all of them had simultaneously gone missing. I hadn’t had direct connections to any of them, but it was still news that made me feel extremely uneasy.

“And what’s with the rumor that thousands of people who received treatment from the temples in the Laviter Empire died without a known cause?”

Late last night, a disturbing piece of news flew in. We already knew that the first prince of the Laviter Empire had died during sacred treatment. I half-dismissed it, thinking that something like that could happen since priests weren’t gods, but if regular people, knights, and nobles receiving treatment from the temples in the Empire were dying, then that was a different matter entirely.

“I don’t like it.”

The temple disaster was occurring solely in the Laviter Empire. I had always scorned the actions of the temples and the greedy priests, but this wasn’t it. They might be fleecing the populace, but the existence of the temples alone was a balm for the people. If distrust towards the temples grew, there was no doubt that large-scale chaos would ensue.

“Should I go take a look?”

The reliability of the information coming in wasn’t all that low, but I had to resist a rather pressing desire to go over and take a look for myself. I felt like I would be more at ease if I could see the situation with my own two eyes.

Ruuuumble! Ruuumble! Crash.

Thunder boomed amongst the raindrops, followed shortly by lightning bolts striking the ground. Then, the rain came down harder, the patter of raindrops turning into a rush of water.

“Some kimchi jeon and makgeolli would really hit the spot right now.”

In Korea, it was tradition to eat kimchi pancakes and sparkling rice wine on a rainy weekend day. My parents had sophisticated jobs as a professor and fund manager, but they were still fond of traditional Korean tastes. Thanks to that, I could always have ⅓ a paper cup of makgeolli and a kimchi jeon made of ripe kimchi on a rainy weekend day.

“Well, gotta make do with whatever you’ve got. I have beer instead of makgeolli.”

It wasn’t as much of a match made in heaven, but kimchi jeon and beer was an adequate replacement.

“Hnnngh…”

Stretching widely with the sound of the rushing raindrops in my ears, I licked my lips in anticipation.

If possible, I didn’t want to fly in the sky on a rainy day, and plus, today was a rare break. Throwing a kimchi jeon party with Aramis and all my Nerman friends didn’t sound half bad.