Turning Chapter 1261

Yuder hesitated for a mont before lowering his gaze. There wasn’t much written on the paper.

The House of Count Cantinto was a rather old noble family. They held a small domain located sowhere between the Central and Western regions, but aside from that, there was nothing particularly remarkable. The current Count Cantinto was a woman in her forties, and she was said to be a niece of lach Cantinto.

The records within the family regarding the life of lach Cantinto were extrely concise. He was born the fourth son of the family, and like most mages, he underwent a mana reaction test at a young age and beca a mage. His first position was as an apprentice under a mage who had connections with his parents.

He spent many years gaining experience there and eventually entered the Royal Mage Office through recomndation. There, he served for nearly twenty years. He was diligent but had never made a na for himself through any noteworthy achievents.

Then, his final record was of being transferred from the Royal Mage Office to a newly established organization—the Imperial Mana Institute. He was dispatched to several posts there for a few years and eventually died in an accident at his final deploynt site.

The Royal Mage Office paid substantial compensation as a gesture of condolence, and the Cantinto family, following lach’s will and with no surviving family mbers, inherited and disposed of his assets.

It was truly an ordinary record. If the subject written about hadn’t been his grandfather, Yuder would have found it boring enough to yawn. He stared quietly at the paper before flipping to the next page. It contained records of the places where lach Cantinto had worked.

“He lived such a plain life that it wasn’t easy to find any oddities. But there are still a few mages from his era who are alive, so we were able to find so leads and make a few guesses.”

Kishiar approached and pointed to a part of the paper Yuder was holding.

“See here? The mage who took lach Cantinto as a disciple had a {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} few other students. All of them were from noble families, and there’s word that they all belonged to the sa magical school.”

The sa magical school. At that, Yuder recalled the face of Sallandin, whom he had t when he visited his hotown, and the mark on his grandfather’s arm that resembled a symbol.

“The one said to receive the ‘Blessing of the Great Mage’... That naless magical sect.”

“Right. Since it didn’t demand any real activity, it seems close companions joined it in their youth with light intentions. But once lach Cantinto entered the Royal Mage Office, it seems their ties began to fade.”

Kishiar pointed to a line below.

“lach Cantinto transferred to the Royal Mage Office after his master’s death. The other mages who shared that master had also hoped to get in, but only lach was accepted.”

It wasn’t because the other mages were inferior to lach. The Royal Mage Office had selected him because they highly valued his mana sensitivity.

“At the ti, the Royal Mage Office was preparing to establish a new institution to research the mana distribution across the Empire.”

Yes. That was the Imperial Mana Institute.

“They wanted to recruit soone suitable for that task, and they judged lach to be the right candidate. But since no one knew the reason, there was apparently a lot of jealousy and resentnt surrounding him.”

“Still, mana sensitivity is part of a mage’s skill, isn’t it? I don’t quite understand why they were so envious.”

“Even among mages, it’s common to undervalue invisible abilities.”

Kishiar smiled with a slight grimace.

“Think of it like this: a knight with little personal skill, but with a sharp eye for potential in others. The prevailing opinion was that mages with only high mana sensitivity were good for nothing more than screening young applicants.”

Yuder recalled what Kanna had read yesterday about the mage robe.

‘It’s not very flashy, but it’s a robe issued to those who served the Imperial Household. It seems the owner of this robe was very proud of that fact. Soone once said to them—so you’ve been acknowledged for being born with mana sensitivity, even if your power is diocre. Congratulations... Cantinto.’

Could the person who said that have been a friend from lach Cantinto’s youth? After hearing Kishiar’s explanation, it made sense now.

“Now then, this next part.”

Kishiar handed over a new sheet of paper.

“A summary of the final report pulled from the records of the Imperial Mana Institute.”

It was hard to believe this amount of information was sothing Kishiar had read only once and morized. Even if he had copied it from the original, it would have been difficult to transcribe it this quickly.

“You don’t need to read it all. We already have a rough idea of the incident. What matters is from here onward—the records by the investigators who were dispatched afterward.”

The official na of the incident written on the paper was: The Airik Expedition Investigation Group Death Incident.

“There were a total of sixteen people dispatched. Eight Royal Mages, seven support personnel, and one family mber of a dispatched mage.”

It was a day in the late autumn, shifting into winter. A sudden monster outbreak occurred in the village where the dispatched mages were staying. It was assud that the monsters involved were of various species, and among them were those capable of breathing fire.

Fire.

Among the support personnel was a knight who had accompanied them for protection, but in the end, including the dispatched group, around 50 villagers perished. The investigators who went to handle the aftermath wrote the following:

All testimonies agree that by the ti rescue signals drew people from nearby villages and the base of the mountain, the village had already been almost completely burned down, with only faint embers remaining as the fire had mostly extinguished itself.

Two monsters remained alive, but they were wounded by fire and easily dealt with.

Due to the grueso state of the scene, victim identification had to rely on personal belongings.

So the fire had nearly extinguished itself without human intervention?

Yuder focused more closely on the part related to the fire.

Since the fire was caused by monsters, it’s assud it died down once the monsters perished.

The reason most of the monsters were already dead before rescuers arrived was presud to be due to them attacking each other after the victims had already died.

The reason the fire didn’t spread beyond a certain range is unclear, but it roughly coincides with the area where a seven-layer defensive barrier had been installed around the village. A hypothesis was proposed that the mana stones used in that barrier might have prevented the fire from spreading further.

All mana stones were destroyed and lted, so their origin and grade could not be verified.

In other words, even the Royal Mage Office had questioned why the fire didn’t spread across the entire mountain range and why nearly all monsters were already dead upon discovery.

They ultimately couldn’t find a definite answer, and only included hypotheses and speculation in the record before closing the case. But their guesses weren’t entirely irrational.

Monsters turning on each other during an outbreak isn’t unheard of.

Still, the real answer likely lay elsewhere.

“When the rescuers arrived and found the monsters already dead, and the fire having died out without spreading—it all looks like evidence of the ‘Blessing of the Great Mage’ manifesting.”

“I thought so too.”

Kishiar nodded in agreent.

“I looked further into records of mages suspected of receiving the Great Mage’s Blessing in the past, and surprisingly, the events before and after look very similar. Flip to the back page.”

Yuder turned the page. In that brief ti, Kishiar had sohow found and written down actual records from that period. It wasn’t just legend or hearsay—it looked like real docuntation exchanged between the Pearl Tower and officials from that ti.

“How... did you even find this? Did you contact the Pearl Tower?”

“Haha, not directly, but I have mage acquaintances too, you know.”

Kishiar smiled secretively.

“In any case, according to this, the mage at the center of the incident really did stop breathing and co back to life. That’s confird by attached temple records. There’s also testimony that he tried to save others before he died, and it seems the people whose lives were saved by that mage sent several letters of gratitude.”