The History of Magic

It was already evening when Rienta and Serie left the Church.

The streets were brightly lit.

Wisps of smoke rose straight into the sky.

A human and an elf walked side by side, aimlessly strolling through the streets of Dreccol.

Serie didn't know where to go.

Rienta simply wanted to experience the atmosphere of shopping.

I don't know how much time passed.

Serie stopped and turned to look at Rienta beside her.

Where are we going?

Rienta stopped and thought seriously for a long time before replying, "I don't know."

Serie: "..."

Seeing this, Rienta chuckled and said, "Let's go try some of the local specialties."

Serie didn't want to talk at the moment, she just nodded and gestured for Rienta to lead the way.

The two continued walking along the street.

Soon, Rienta spotted a dessert vendor.

He stepped forward and took out two silver coins that he had exchanged at the Church.

"Two strawberry flavored ones."

"Your girlfriend is very pretty." The stall owner took out two desserts decorated with strawberries, handed them to Rienta, and said with a smile, glancing at Serie was waiting nearby.

Rienta took the strawberry cake blankly, looking at the stall owner with some confusion.

But the stall owner responded with a look that said, "I understand you."

He leaned over from the stall and whispered in Rienta's ear:

"Keep it up, young man."

Rienta immediately understood, feeling both amused and exasperated. She handed the silver coins to the stall owner and turned to leave.

The stall owner hadn't lowered his voice before, so Serie naturally heard it too.

Taking the strawberry cake from Rienta, her eyes crinkled with amusement, she teased:

"How come I didn't know I was your girlfriend?"

Rienta smiled helplessly, unsure how to respond. Pretending not to hear Serie's words, she pointed to another vendor and said:

"Those kebabs over there look pretty good, I'll go buy some and try them."

Serie watched as Rienta fled in disarray, a slight smile playing on her lips.

For her, the past few days have been a very novel experience.

In her spare time, she does nothing but study magic.

Decades ago, after she impulsively adopted Flamme, her ordinary life changed somewhat.

But it's only been about ten years.

Flamme left after he grew up.

After that, she returned to her daily routine of studying magic.

Just a few days ago, Frieren brought Flamme's suicide note.

A suicide note that reads like a report.

Only fifty years had passed, and she never imagined that the next message she would receive from Flamme would be a suicide note.

Fifty years.

For her, this amount of time was just enough to study a few spells.

But for Flamme, it was long enough to accomplish a stunning feat.

They persuaded the emperor of the Unified Empire to approve a nationwide plan to research magic.

In the past, openly researching magic was considered taboo.

This is a requirement of the Church, and also a consensus among high-level officials in various countries.

But Flamme was able to persuade the most powerful Unified Empire at the time to push forward with this plan.

This is definitely a remarkable feat.

But even that wasn't enough for Flamme.

In his suicide note, he even mentioned wanting her to take over Flamme's work.

That's really greedy.

The most powerful Unified Empire on the continent began researching magic and preparing to use it for military purposes.

This means that neighboring countries will definitely follow suit.

In a few decades, magic will be widespread throughout the continent.

The era that Flamme envisioned, in which all of humanity would use magic, was about to arrive.

In other words, humanity will possess the power to fight against the Demon King's Army.

Thinking of this, Serie suddenly remembered Rienta had said about the number of mages in the future being surprisingly small, as small as only a few thousand.

This is unreasonable.

Just then, Rienta returned.

He was holding several kinds of skewers in his hands.

Seeing that Serie hadn't eaten the fruit cake, Rienta asked with some confusion:

"What's wrong, Lady Serie?"

It's a bit unusual, but Serie actually has little appetite.

She clearly loves strawberries the most.

It couldn't be because of what that shop owner said earlier, could it?

Rienta held the skewers to Serie's lips, saying, "Try it."

"Aww, chew~ chew~."

Serie stopped thinking and subconsciously took a big bite.

Delicious, juicy chunks of meat burst in her mouth.

Serie squinted, enjoying the food Rienta was feeding her.

A short while later.

The skewers that Rienta bought were all devoured by Serie.

Rienta looked at her empty hands, then at the untouched strawberry cake in Serie's hand, and fell into deep thought.

Serie has a pretty good appetite, doesn't she?

Why did you suddenly stop eating strawberry cake?

Serie seemed to sense Rienta's confusion and explained:

"Didn't Rienta say that dessert should be eaten after a meal?"

Rienta looked at Serie in disbelief. "Just because of this?"

Serie nodded. "What else?"

Rienta: "... Okay."

Having realized what was happening, Rienta and Serie continued strolling along the street.

I occasionally buy some snacks or something.

They ate and drank their fill until the moon was high in the sky before finally finding a hotel to rest.

Inside the room.

Rienta lay on the bed, casually taking out a research record of a [Sacred Scripture] from her [Personal Space] and flipping through it.

Before coming here, Frieren mentioned that when she last came to analyze the [Goddess's Monument], those two passages were not there.

Fialator.

A name recorded in the Bird Chapter of the Time Pilgrimage.

And the name of the move, [Excalibur Morgan], whose meaning only he knows.

Therefore, based on the timeline...

These two passages were likely inscribed after Frieren's first analysis of the [Goddess's Monument].

It certainly can't be the time he's currently in.

Based on this calculation, does it mean he will stay here for nearly a thousand years?

Only after that text is engraved can one return to their own time.

Rienta really enjoys holidays.

With [Longevity], thousands of years of leisurely life sounds pretty good.

However, there is still a very unreasonable aspect to this.

Given his personality, if he had truly lived for a thousand years...

The future is definitely not what he sees.

In Rienta's view, the future development of magic will undoubtedly be distorted.

Regardless of whether it was magic that had barely improved for hundreds of years, or various other types of magic that began to develop at an extremely rapid pace after the Demon King was defeated.

Or perhaps the battles between mages are too honest.

There's also a noticeably unusual number of mages.

A magical civilization that has developed for nearly a thousand years, with the Central Countries, Southern Countries, and Northern Lands combined, could easily have a population of hundreds of millions.

Even though the human population has been reduced by more than half due to war.

However, the remaining number is still quite considerable.

Despite such a large number of members, the Continental Magic Association, founded by Serie, the strongest below the Goddess and known as the 'Living Grimoire', only had two thousand mages.

He had previously considered that it might be because many mages worked for nobles, so it wasn't recorded.

But at that time he didn't know that First-Class Mages could obtain [Privileges ].

Apart from him, few mages could resist this temptation.

Even Fern chose a spell that could completely remove stains from clothes.

Not to mention, Dunkel also gained Curse-Reversing Magic through [Privilege].

Dunkel was certainly not the first mage to allow Serie to use [Privileges ] through [Transfer Magic].

Rienta didn't believe any mage could resist such temptation.

Don't say that First-Class Mage very difficult.

Of the 2,000 recorded mages, 45 are First-Class Mages.

This probability is already quite high.

Furthermore, there is no age limit for the First-Class Mage exam.

To put it bluntly, any mage with even a slight talent for magic could easily reach the First-Class Mage by simply gaining experience.

Of course, if you die during the exam, that's a different story.

"Why..."

As she pondered this, Rienta skimmed through the research notes on Time Pilgrimage in the [Sacred Scripture].

Unfortunately, this research record does not include the Bird Chapter.

Rienta sighed, just as drowsiness washed over her, and then tossed the research records back into her [Personal Space].

"Go to sleep, we'll talk about it tomorrow."