Chapter 33

Chapter 33
## Chapter 33
### What is Life?

Drest took a long time to answer that question.

He was born the son of a tenant farmer in the central part of the empire, in the region of Zebulon. As a child, he played in the mountains and fields; he learned to plow as he grew, tilled the earth, harvested, and, in times of scarcity, hunted in the wild to satiate his hunger. His family was poor but harmonious, without ambitions, dreaming only of finding a good partner, a decent piece of land, and feeling proud of owning an extensive farm and a complete house. He was nothing more than a young tenant without greed, whose only goal was to live an honest and stable life.

However, heaven had granted him a gift. In the darkness of the night, with his plow in the field and contemplating the starry sky, it seemed as if celestial principles were reflected in his eyes. The flowing magical energy seemed like a turbulent river, a natural landscape, and the spark of magic at the tip of his fingers felt like an extension of his body.

He learned magic, not out of ambition or devotion to the magical path, but simply because he could. By observing the city’s mages cast spells and sensing the magical flow in nature, he developed a unique style of magic. He could predict when the wind would blow and seemed to sense when it would rain. As he walked through the forest, the whisper of every leaf spoke to his ear, and every movement seemed perfectly understandable to him. He aimed his bow toward where wild animals would land and avoided places where stones might fall.

—

### A Mage Born from the Ordinary

By the time he reached adulthood, he had attained two-star status, and when his beard grew and he formed a family, he reached three stars. In a small village on the fringes of his territory, he became a heroic figure, and his entire family respected him as their head. His wife, the daughter of a miller, was kind and beautiful, always looking after him, and his two adorable daughters were always proud of their father’s magical feats.

He had a revelation.

If his first act of life was that of a tenant farmer, the second was that of a mage. Conscious of this, he deepened his magical abilities, studying day and night spellbooks brought from the city, perfecting and developing numerous exploration spells, making them his own. Without realizing it, no ordinary mage could keep up with him. Could he reach the level of four-star magic before forty? Could the second stage of his life shine even brighter? With that thought, he dedicated himself even more to magic and agriculture in that humble village.

And then, his life entered a third act: the life of a **vengeful spirit**.

The entire world paid him homage for reaching three-star status. Famous nobles expressed their amazement that a commoner mage could achieve such a state, and among common mages, he became practically a spiritual pillar. Rumors about Drest, the seeker mage of Count Zebulon, reached Ebelstain. Even as a commoner, he became living proof that someone could reach the level of a high-level mage.

Mages of all kinds began to arrive at his village in search of his teachings. Most were absorbed in the study of magic, and conversing with them was a pleasure. However, some spoke of something more than magic. They felt resentment toward the nobles of royal blood who flaunted magic as a privilege and ruled the world. There were mages of humble origin, with irascible temperaments, who claimed the world needed to change.

The following year, they were beheaded in the city square. Apparently, they had been caught attempting to assassinate Count Zebulon. It was an unpleasant end. Even so, that human temperament reappeared from time to time. To them, the existence of Drest—a commoner who dared to reach the magical realm of four stars—was not that of a messiah. They praised him, saw him as living proof, and harbored a deep desire to change the world.

Drest had no interest in such a revolution. Although he belonged to the ranks of high-level mages, his essence had not changed much since his days as a tenant. What he sought was personal achievement, not a transformation of the world. He lived with the hope of reaching a higher plane and, beyond that, of supporting his wife and daughters. Those were all his aspirations.

The following year, Count Zebulon ordered the execution of Drest’s entire family. All the revolutionaries believed in Drest as their savior. As he gradually ascended to the rank of four stars, their numbers undoubtedly grew. The Count wanted to eradicate any hint of rebellion. Drest might not have led the revolution, but he was its catalyst.

He was accused of numerous crimes. Atrocious sins he had never committed tarnished his honor. Ironically, the only ones who understood that it was all defamation were the very revolutionaries who had put him in that position.

—

### The Descent into Vengeance

One day, upon returning home, he found his house soaked in blood. His wife’s corpse hung from the wall. His two daughters had been massacred; their bodies lay on the floor, covered in blood. The house was set on fire, and a massive bonfire cast a red glow into the night sky. The blood of the villagers who once shared bonds with him ran like a river. Charred pieces rolled on the ground, occasionally smoking. It was the scene of everything he knew in his village turning to ash and vanishing. The faces of the soldiers who set the fire glowed with joy.

The revolutionaries whispered in Drest’s ear: *”This is the work of the nobles.”*

Their incitements turned Drest into a vengeful spirit born from hell. Years passed, and after numerous small battles and persecutions, he infiltrated the mansion and was on the verge of killing Count Zebulon.

But he could not bring himself to kill the Count. In the burning house, the Count trembled with fear, clinging to his daughters and pleading for his life through tears. Drest’s eyes, fixed on the Count’s pleas for the lives of his daughters, still burned with a thirst for revenge. Revenge was futile. What remained afterward was only hatred and a new void. It is not that he did not understand it. But he had to do it. Even if it was empty and meaningless, it was something to reflect on later. He could not live the rest of his life consumed by an insatiable thirst for vengeance.

The cycle of hatred had to be broken at some point, but it didn’t have to start with him. In the instant his killing magic was unleashed, he remembered his innocent children upon seeing the Count’s terrified daughters. They were the very image of innocence. Just as his daughters had died in vain, these girls were also innocent.

Drest closed his eyes and reflected, then he tore out Count Zebulon’s eye, his tongue, and the tendons of both legs. The Count writhed in pain, bleeding. Leaving him at the mercy of a life as a cripple, Drest abandoned the mansion.

### The Impossible Fugitive

In this way, he became a public enemy of the aristocracy. For more than a decade, he lived as a fugitive. Many mages who believed in him and followed him tried to protect him, but they died. Even his closest companions perished. Years passed, and although everyone else was captured, Drest remained unreachable.

Neither the high nobles nor the five-star mages of the imperial palace could catch him. By his fiftieth birthday, he had already surpassed the threshold of five stars; his vengeance had turned him into the most powerful seeker mage in the world. Although age was taking its toll and he could no longer run fast, he possessed no special means of transport nor secret paths known only to him.

However, with his serene gait, walking slowly along the same paths as everyone else, no one could reach him. As if he knew exactly when and where his pursuers would appear, the movements of the old man sliding through the world seemed ghostly.

Fifteen years passed, and when he was already over sixty, the high nobles had completely given up on capturing him. Nearly thirty years had passed since he had maimed Count Zebulon. Time corroded everything in this world, even sin. After three decades, the nobles had to admit that capturing **Drest WolfTail** was an impossible task. If they could not completely stifle the revolution he embodied, they at least had to draw him into their sphere of influence. Only after so much time did they resign themselves and decide to approach him in another way.

—

### The Twilight of a Legend

Years later, the imperial palace granted Sir Drest the title of **Baronet**. If they could not control him, they would make him a noble to protect their authority. More than thirty-five years passed before he was finally freed from his pursuers, thanks to many intervening to clear the misunderstandings surrounding him.

The emperor himself resolved the dispute with the family of Prince Zebulon, offering him numerous honors, reparations, and apologies, and in the end, he was free. Conscious of this, he understood that life had entered its sunset and that he had become a true noble. He was no longer a commoner, but a noble. He possessed no lands or a grand mansion, but he was accepted as such solely for his magical excellence, completely apart from the common people.

The commoners no longer saw him as someone who would overthrow the nobility. He had become a noble solely thanks to his magical talent, which made many commoners believe that, if they lived diligently, they too might one day reach such wealth.

Drest did not care about those public opinions. By that point, everything in life seemed empty to him. And, to some extent, he was not wrong. In fact, he was the only one who had destroyed the privileges of the nobility solely through his magical talent. He had reached the level of a **six-star mage**, becoming one of the most famous mages in the world, although society only knew him as a four-star mage. He belonged to no faction, but rumors said he lived surrounded by luxury.

He harbored no ambitions, but to others, he was seen as an ordinary mage with great aspirations. Those who followed him founded an academy in his name, and he occasionally supported them, but whenever he could, he wandered the world. He climbed high mountains to contemplate the world from above and delved into the deepest caves to surrender to the darkness. Living without family or friends, adrift, he soon turned eighty, and then ninety.

When he looked at the world from above, everything had changed. The old man looked up at the sky. Although many years had passed, the sun, the moon, and the stars remained in their place. It had been a turbulent journey, but everything in the firmament seemed immutable.

Walking in silence, the old man suddenly looked up at the sky and murmured:

> “Yes. This is life.”

He had been the only and beloved son of a father, the steady head of a family, and a bloodthirsty avenger. A hermit consumed by the void, a spiritual pillar of the academy, an idol for some commoners, and an enemy for some nobles. And sometimes he was someone’s companion, and other times, someone’s enemy.

As his life entered its twilight, few feelings remained.

“After all, there isn’t much to do.”

This is life. Only at the end of his life did the old man realize. He had run as if pursued, and sometimes he had moved forward without thinking… but in the end, that was life.

—

### The Ambiguous Talent

“Mmm, your magical talent is too ambiguous.”

In the southwest of the empire, wandering spirits roamed. Dereck might be unaware of the rumors among the high nobility, but at least the opinion that the old man from the ring looked like a ghost was unanimous. The old man who left the tavern with Dereck walked through the streets, bathed in the dawn air, as if floating.

Behind him, Drest evaluated Dereck’s magical talent with a hoarse but weak voice.

“Ambiguous?”

“Yes.”

No one in Dereck’s life had ever described his magical talent as ambiguous. He had reached the two-star category at fourteen and aspired to three stars at seventeen. He might even achieve magical feats faster than Drest himself. Dereck’s magical talent was extraordinary.

However, Drest considered it ambiguous. To him, it seemed like a distant realm.

“If you dream of reaching a high realm being a common mage, the ordinary is not a good sign in the end.”

“…”

“If you seek a path, you will be overwhelmed.”

Dereck debated internally how to respond. Honestly, he thought his current level was exceptional.

“A great chaos is looming in the west of the empire. To survive, you must become more extraordinary.”

“…”

They walked through dark and impoverished alleys during the night, and finally, while adjusting his cloak, Drest turned around. In a place shrouded in darkness, the cold gaze of the honorable mage shone faintly.

“Combat magic will protect you from various anomalies, and chaos magic will create countless variables in diverse situations. But to correctly use such magic, one must also know how to obtain precise information about the situation and the environment.”

Drest’s thin hand cut the air and then clenched tightly, demonstrating his determination. The explosion of magical power seemed to cover the sky. The intricate details of the various spells engraved above were so fine that even Dereck, quite skilled in multiple magical fields, could not help but open his eyes in awe.

Contemplating the glowing magical formulas that decorated the dark night streets, Dereck’s eyes were completely captivated, shining with fascination. The series of revealed exploration spells followed a trajectory completely different from anything Dereck had experienced before. The grand spectacle of magical power seemed like a nautical chart showing the way to a distant golden realm.

***

### The Decision

The next day, at the tavern **‘Tears of Beldern’**.

Since morning, Jayden had been busy with the pile of letters arriving. Although receiving work requests was common, today was a special day because so many people came.

“I didn’t expect to receive letters from the Beltus, Belmierd, and Duplain families all at once. It’s true, life is full of surprises.”

The reputation of the Beldern Mercenary Group had grown rapidly since its founding. Thanks to Dereck’s contributions, Jayden’s hard work, and the strength of the other members. However, they were not famous enough to receive simultaneous requests from the three most prominent families of the western empire. Of course, in those letters, they were only looking for one person.

Jayden reflected on how to handle the situation.

— *Clink!*

“Oh, Dereck!”

When Dereck boldly entered the tavern, Jayden greeted him happily. There were many lucrative commissions. Just as he was about to mention them, Dereck took a bag of food from the corner of the bar table, left a silver coin, and said urgently:

“I reject all assignments starting today. The other members are enough, aren’t they? It’s time for me to take a break.”

“…What?”

Jayden knew that Dereck took breaks regularly, but this time the clients had too much influence. Such requests could not be easily rejected. Just as Jayden was about to explain, Dereck, who seemed to be in a hurry, said:

“I’m leaving now. I have an urgent matter to attend to.”

It was rare to see the normally calm Dereck acting as if fire were at his heels. The strange anticipation in his eyes seemed to shine with joy, as if he were fulfilling a long-cherished ideal. The contrast with his usual behavior was unsettling.

Jayden was about to explain the difficulty of rejecting those assignments, but Dereck had already left the tavern with a light step. To a stranger, it might not have seemed unusual, but Jayden, who knew Dereck well, noticed it.

Dereck was extremely excited. At that moment, he had no intention of teaching anyone.