The Black Iron Glory
Diaries
Chapter 21
Diaries
With that, Claude should be able to have a period of peace. After returning to his attic, he remembered how Arbeit acted during the meal and could not help but smile.
Arbeit could not sit still at all. He had no idea how much Claude knew. Throughout the dinner, Arbeit glared at Claude for who knows how many times. Although he wanted to ask for confirmation, he did not dare to do so. He would even subconsciously avoid Claude's eyes when he looked back at him.
He did not seem to enjoy the food at all. Even their mother noticed his strange behavior and asked what was wrong.
Although Arbeit said that he was fine, he left in a hurry right after finishing eating. Claude suspects Arbeit rushing to the boutique to ask them if Claude asked about the time he took Christina there to buy clothes.
However, he did not care about Arbeit. He anxiously attempted to decode the rest of the page to see what was recorded in the magus diary.
. . . . . .
Date: the 15th day of the 8th month, Year 3341 of the magic calendar of Nomadin. Weather: Bright.
Today, another three magi units arrived at Golddew. They came from Marino, Shaliz and Chilasos respectively.
Luckily for them, they were not attacked by gunmen like Magus Jones.
Given how Bota was playing around day and night with the stall girls, he did not look like a noble magus at all. He looked more like a bum and alcohol mercenary.
Even Senior Tawari did not care about him.
Oh, and, I heard Krimondo crying alone in his room. When I asked him about it, he just looked at me coldly.
Aliya said that I was lucky not to know anything. '\ Stupidity is happiness' are her exact words.
I feel like they are hiding something from me.
Date: the 16th day of the 8th month, Year 3341 of the magic calendar of Nomadins. Weather: Bright.
I heard units sent from the city to investigate the location where the Jones unit was attacked have returned. Senior Tawari went to check and said that all seven magi corpses had been brought back. There were 22 bodies destroyed. The identity of the attacker has been confirmed. They are a fraternity of the damned.
They really are a bunch of crazy crazy people. I don't know why those gunmen would attack our magus unit. They also seem very organized and disciplined. Jones said that they would not flinch even though the comrades beside them were smashed to pieces.
Maybe I shouldn't have joined in on weapon refinement five years ago.
The other five majus units arrived in the city, but they did not stay at Fragrant Dew.
I don't know where they came from. Although I wanted to meet them, Senior Tawari asked me to stay in my room and not let me out.
. . . . . .
Claude read the sixth diary entry translated with furrowed brows. He eventually came across a term he was familiar with: brotherhood.
In the history of the Freian continent, brotherhood was a core force in the fight against evil magi. Towards the end of the dark ages, it was brotherhood that led the people of the continent to resist the cruel despotic rule. After paying a great sacrifice and enduring much hardship and pain, they eventually banish the evil magi from going to an island called Cyclos and liberating the entire continent.
The diary appears to have been written at the end of a dark era during the war between magi and brotherhood. Does that mean he's at least six hundred years old? That's too incredible. While others may believe that it is a hundred year old cookbook, others will doubtless question his claim that the book is six hundred years old. Even animal skins are known to last for at most three centuries.
Perhaps it was magic that helped prevent the cookbook from degenerating as a result of time, such as steam in the air that would cause it to rot or insects that would eat and damage the parchment. Today, cookbooks look in perfect condition.
I might as well decode three other entries I had copied while I was working on it. When I finish, I will copy the rest. I've copied 9 of the 17 pages written on the so-called magus 'manticore parchment'. I wonder if I can copy the rest tonight.
I might as well decode three other entries I had copied while I was working on it. When I finish, I will copy the rest. I've copied 9 of the 17 pages written on the so-called magus 'manticore parchment'. I wonder if I can copy the rest tonight.
. . . . . .
Date: the 17th day of the 8th month, Year 3341 of the magic calendar of Nomadin. Weather: Bright.
Loud explosions could be heard at midnight. There was also a huge magic wave.
However, Senior Tawari did not allow us to go out.
I heard people in the tavern hall in the morning that two magi were involved in a duel last night. It seems that they are rivals in love who fight for the heart of a woman.
Four houses to the west of Golddew were destroyed by magic and 17 people were eventually killed with nearly a hundred people injured.
Had it not been stopped sooner, even more people would have died or been injured.
what . . How could they fight in such a crowded location with people?
Senior Tawari returned and he said that the two were punished respectively for gold coins for the dead and one silver coin for the wounded.
But I feel the punishment is a bit too light. They only pay one shaliun for every life lost. Those two people must be cursed. I realized that the appearance that the townspeople gave us was filled with hatred.
The other three magi units arrived in the city today. I can't bother asking where they came from.
. . . . . .
Date: the 18th day of the 8th month, Year 3341 of the magic calendar of Nomadin. Weather: Bright.
Date: the 18th day of the 8th month, Year 3341 of the magic calendar of Nomadin. Weather: Bright.
I've been staying at Golddew for eight days, but the courier hasn't arrived yet. I also don't know when they'll let us go to the Symposium city.
The number of magi gradually increased in the city. However, the atmosphere here was getting worse by the day. I found that a number of magi had already started acting in a frenzy. I heard that many of them started fighting after babbling at each other a little no matter if they were in the center of those cities or not.
Fortunately, the enforcement unit that was formed was temporarily able to. They were all five-ringed magi and they could quickly stop hot-headed people and limit the damage done to the bottom.
In the afternoon, I heard something shocking. The two that were dueling in the west of the city were completely dead. One of them died from eating smoked mutton poisoned with jimsonweed extract and the other was stabbed to death by a female prostitute from a tavern.
Two of the men who committed the act were caught. All members of the male chef family and female prostitutes are said to have been killed during the magical shockwave that spreads from the duel. That's why they decided to take revenge with their lives.
The two were hung on a gallows in the center of the city and even their souls were burned by the magical fire slowly for three days and three nights before they actually died. It was a warning to the townspeople to prevent the brave among them from hurting the magi again.
This time, the people in the city avoided us every time they saw us or closed their doors and windows.
. . . . . .
Date: day 19 of the 8th month, Year 3341 of the magic calendar of Nomadin. Weather: Bright.
Temporary enforcement units have decided to forcibly move the townspeople from the city center to a distant plot of land to camp there. They would take over the houses for the Magi to use.
More and more magi began to examine their food with magic before they ate.
I heard rumors that the magic council did not call us to repair the magical inscription of the sky piercing tower. Instead, we'll use a magic array of transference tower runers to move us to the newly discovered Kenpus craft. It is said that labor and resources are in high demand there.
I asked Senior Tawari if these rumors were true, but he did not reply to me and just looked at me with a dark expression.
Didn't they say Kenpus was a high-level magical battle world? I heard that even a wild rabbit there can use five-ringed magus. What would a magus like me that only specializes in alchemy and runes do? I'm just a four-ring magus who can't fight well.
Rumor must be wrong.
Didn't they say Kenpus was a high-level magical battle world? I heard that even a wild rabbit there can use five-ringed magus. What would a magus like me that only specializes in alchemy and runes do? I'm just a four-ring magus who can't fight well.
Rumor must be wrong.
However, the owner of our magic tower, Magus Loenk, did go to Kenpus' plane a year ago. Since he's a seven-ringed magus, I believe he should be fine there.
Another large unit arrived in the afternoon. There were about 50 thousand people and seven thousand carriages. They camped near the fields to the east of the city and were so overcrowded that I could only see endless heads! How glorious!
I heard that they transported some magical materials, such as black crystals, to the Symposium on the orders of the magic council. Oh, and they also got one properly registered shooter unit, about 8000 of them in total.
. . . . . .
The contents of the seventh, eighth and ninth entries were quite dense. . Claude thought as he stroked his chin. He managed to confirm that the diary's author was a magus, a low-ranking person with only four rings. He specialized in alchemy and secret inscriptions and did not know how to fight well. There also appears to be a higher magi such as the one consisting of five rings and seven rings. The rings seemed to indicate the degree of magi.
He also confirmed that magi could be easily killed by laymen. For example, the two love rivals were poisoned and stabbed to death. Sure, it happens when they're off guard. But even so, magic sounded like it was really powerful. A single duel between two magi four or five rings could cause a huge casualty with a magic shockwave alone.
In addition, the magic council seems to gather low-ranking magi and send them to a plane called Kenpus. Even though the author said it was just a rumor, he sounded a little more naive than the others. His other magi friend also seemed to not want to go to the plane.
It began to read more and more like some of the ones Claude had read before. There seems to be a different category between worlds, such as those of high magic and low magic. Given that the wild rabbit on Kenpus' plane is said to be capable of carrying five-ringed magus, Kenpus is definitely a world of high magic. That was why the low rank magi did not want to go there. However, they had no choice but to gather at Golddew due to the orders of the magic council.
A new name also appears in the diary: the city of the Symposium. Sounds like that's the purpose of the magi to be sent. There is a tower that pierces the sky with a magical array of transference that can send people to other planes, such as Kenpus.
The diary's author, a four-ringed magus, was under the impression that they had been summoned to examine and refine a secret magic array. It showed that the scale of the formation array was really large and required people to maintain. That was why the author did not suspect the slightest bit about the large group of low rank magi.
Claude also realized that the magi did not seem to have a good relationship with ordinary people. They were supposed to be aloof and arrogant people that ordinary people had no chance to resist. For example, magi think that every life lost during a magical duel is only worth one shaliun, their name for a gold coin.
And it seemed that even commoners had to respond to the magic council's call. The last part of the ninth entry states that there are about 50 thousand people and seven thousand carriages in the unit that transport magic materials to the Symposium. They even had eight thousand properly designed armed men.
It is clear that ordinary people also play managerial roles. Otherwise, a large unit consisting of 50 thousand people and seven thousand carriages would be destroyed if the food distribution was not handled properly. That was especially the case with the armed men's unit. At the very least, it is a sign that there is a local or national government capable of managing the people effectively.
What confuses Claude is this: although he has read many historical accounts of the dark ages, never once has a national or local governing body been mentioned. All that is noted is that the continent of Freia has been ruled by evil magi and as a result the common people suffer.