Return of The 8th Class Mage

145 Part 2

“Even if you say so, it isn’t a power that could be given to just anyone.”

“Sure. But, I’m not just anyone?”

Ian continued.

“I need that power. That way, even if the plan was to fail this time, there would be no concern of going to the other side forever? As long as I can maintain my life, I could always plan for the future, don’t you agree? Just like what you are doing now.”

“Well, if you really want it that badly…”

The immortality energy, once again, bloomed like mushroom from Fran’s palm. However, it wasn’t what Ian wanted. Extending his palm out to Fran, Ian restrained Fran’s energy.

“Wait, I’ll not accept the power that you are going to give me. How do I know what kind of stuff you put into that power? My first life was ended by poison. Ah, that poison. Was it done by you, possibly? I would be quite upset if that was the case.”

Fran remained in a silence of positivity. It was because everything was Fran’s plan.

“…I don’t wish to fault you at this point. So, teach me the method, that is, how to harness the power of immortality. I am not asking you to simply endow me with that power…”

“You don’t need to explain. I sufficiently understand you.”

He wasn’t asking to be given the power of immortality. He needed the method to harness it. That was Ian’s position, and Fran understood it as well. Only that understanding and decision making were two different things.

“Hmm, OK. I should teach you since you want to learn. As I’m still your father…, Oh! Never mind. This is just an error in my words, so let’s not show hostility again.”

Was it due to the warning to say not too much of this and that because of the father and son relationship? Fran murmured even with exaggeration for some reason.

“You won’t be like that, right…?”

“You, is all of this an act?”

“That’s disappointing, you know me?”

“If this is all an act, it’s better to just die and stop all this. You really look like you are truly mad. No, are you crazy? It’s even worse if you’ve not gone crazy.”

“Huhhuh. Still, you say anything without any reservation.”

After a brief moment of lowering his head as he became truly sullen, Fran raised his right hand as he spoke. He no longer appeared sullen. Truly, he was a man of emotional ups and downs.

“I suppose there is no other way. I’ll teach you what you want to know. I will not care as far as what you do with that power, be it, finding my weaknesses or wielding the power of immortality. Only that there is something I need to show you before I teach you the power.”

“Something to show me? What is it?”

“Follow me.”

Fran opened the space as if it was a sliding door. The other side was also a familiar place to Ian. It was the land where the planned subjugation of the three kingdoms had failed. It was like the home of the monsters.

The scenery of the ‘Great East Prairie’ opened up.

“Why here, all of a sudden…”

“You will know when you see it in person.”

The Great East Prairie.

It was the adjacent land to the Fierric Territory.

Some unknown sense of distance was felt.

“…Uh?”

At the same time, there was also a sense of oddness. That was only warranted.

It was because there weren’t any entities that were supposed to be visible, should it have been truly the ‘middle’ of the Great East Prairie,

“Nothing…”

They must be visible if this was the Great East Prairie.

Various monsters or the aboriginals.

At least one of the two, for sure.

But…

“…Nothing?”

The monsters, the aboriginals, and not even a single beast were visible. It meant that the seeds of the life forms which could walk and run about have all been dried out. Ian quickly initiated seer detection. The magic to detect any form of life, yet the result was the same. Nothing was felt.

“What the heck…”

It was the ‘land without life.’

That was the condition of the Great East Prairie.

“What have you done…?”

“Nothing major.”

Fran grinned as he replied.

“A kind of…”

Fran extended both his arms straight out. Furthermore, he was about to extract a large quantity of black colored energy. It was the same energy, as before, which was used to bring the random bug back to life. If there was a difference, it would be that the quantity of the energy has increased in great deal.

“Call it a safety measure?”

That black colored energy. In other words, what was assumed to be the ‘power of immortality’ was penetrating the ground like tens and thousands of serpents. As if there was certain target, a purpose, underneath the ground, they dug in wildly.

“…A safety measure?”

“So that I can be in peace even if you were to learn of my weaknesses…”

The ‘power of immortality’ was penetrating the earth in droves.

The end product of that has finally dispersed throughout the area.

The monsters and the aboriginals that had been disappeared from this land.

It was that they were beginning to return.

Only that they did not return in the form of the living.

“The safety measure.”

The two life forms that shared the Great East Prairie.

The various types of ‘monsters’ and ‘the aboriginal tribes’. They creepily crawled out of the ground.

No longer as ‘living life forms’, but as the ‘immortal army’.

“Ian. As soon as you learn of my weaknesses and have some ulterior motive to do something, these poor children will march to trample and destroy your precious things. They have already been preprogrammed to do that.”

Ian’s precious things. Certainly, that would be referring to his family, and all the things in their vicinities. Especially, based on this huge number of immortal troops, it would certainly lead to a greater calamity than when the attack of the dragon mercenary army had taken place.

“I’m letting you know in advance that the power of immortality requires an incredible amount of time and effort with every single killing. Even if you learn it from me, you will not be able to completely stop this army. Well, you may be able to. It will just take a long time. You might be able to destroy them when you would be about to lose all of the power?”

It was the safety measure, just in case.

That description truly wasn’t in vain.

“So, Ian.”

“…….”

“…..”

“Do not even have any thought about stabbing me in the back.”

It was the voice, tone, and expression used in proposals. However, that was a very clear warning and a threat.

“I, too, do not want to lose my wife.”