Overpowered Archmage Doesn’t Hide His Talent - Chapter 127:

Translator: MarcTempest

Proofreader: naturallyInconsistent

Chapter 127 – I Have No ■■

“Ah…”

Scarlet opened her eyes, feeling a strong dizziness.

As she regained her senses, she realized that she was standing in the middle of a long and dark corridor.

The only light that existed around her was from the candles that hung on the wall at regular intervals.

The orange flames blurred her vision, mixing with her dizziness.

She took slow steps.

The corridor stretched out in a straight line, so she didn’t have to worry about which direction to go.

She walked and walked.

And finally, at some point.

“…”

Scarlet reached the end of the corridor and stood still, staring blankly at the scenery that unfolded before her eyes.

There was a spacious area that reminded her of an exhibition hall.

The walls were covered with large portraits.

“Familiar faces.”

The faces in the portraits were all familiar to her.

They were all portraits of the people of Judith, and under the portraits of her mother and father, there were her and Flan’s faces side by side.

Scarlet approached them as if she was bewitched.

“…!”

And when she got close enough, she naturally stopped walking.

Suddenly, a human figure appeared next to her and walked along with her.

Scarlet recognized it.

“Libra?”

The one who cuts memories. Libra.

It was undoubtedly her.

Libra wore a straw hat on her head and had a dogtail grass in her mouth, looking at Scarlet.

“You’ve arrived, Scarlet.”

“…How long have you been here?”

“I’ve never left this place.”

Scarlet couldn’t understand her answer.

That was because she had seen Libra in the plains when she was dueling with Flan.

…She still had a severe headache.

Scarlet pressed her forehead with one hand and furrowed her brows.

“I don’t understand.”

“From the beginning, I’m nothing but a fragment of memory.”

Libra’s fragment said calmly.

“My main body used ‘Storage’ to detach a part of my memory and left it in the annex. That’s what I am.”

She accepted it.

If anyone could do it, it was Libra.

‘Storage’, ‘Removal’, ‘Injection’… She handled more than a dozen swords, so leaving a fragment of memory in the annex wouldn’t have been difficult for her.

Scarlet parted her lips.

“I want to know the past that I don’t know.”

“That’s not hard.”

Libra’s fragment handed her a sword. Scarlet took it quietly.

“This sword is…”

Scarlet knew what the sword was. It was one of the swords that Libra handled. It was ‘Reading’.

“Can I read all the past with this?”

“That’s impossible.”

Libra’s fragment shook her head.

“Reading consumes a lot of mental power, so the best you can do is to look at the past of one person.”

“One person…”

Scarlet stood in front of her mother’s portrait first. It was just a painting made of paint, but it felt like she could feel a familiar warmth.

“Do I have to stab this sword?”

“You can read it by just pointing with the tip, but that’s only a part. It’s better to stab it, I think.”

Scarlet cautiously pointed with the tip first.

At that moment, the portrait in the frame changed its shape like a wave.

─Are you sure you won’t regret this?

At the same time, a familiar voice hit her ears.

“…!”

Scarlet’s eyes widened.

Her head turned on its own. The sight she had longed to see, the voice she had longed to hear. Evelyn, the Knight of Blazing, was standing in Flan’s room.

─You won’t be able to use your innate ability from now on.

Evelyn said to Flan, who was lying on the bed, and Flan nodded with a pale face.

─If you think you might regret this later, you can withdraw. It’s still possible to recover.

─No.

Flan’s face, which had been pale, became firm. He shook his head firmly.

─I don’t regret my choice. I can prove myself in other fields.

─Will you do that then?

Evelyn seemed to smile.

“I don’t know this memory at all….”

That was all I could see.

That was the limit of what I could face at the edge of the day.

Scarlet moved the edge of the day and pointed to the portrait of her father.

The scenery inside the frame shimmered again.

This time, it was a room in the Judith mansion.

Father Theodore was looking intently at something.

His gaze was directed at the bed, where a girl with jet-black hair was lying with her eyes closed.

It was herself.

─Is it luck or misfortune?

Then, Libra entered the room and said, Scarlet turned her head and listened to her words.

─The ignition was somehow successful. But this body is never….

─Enough. It’s already like this.

That was all I could read.

At the same time, a severe headache tore through my head.

This too, was a memory I didn’t know at all.

“Ugh….”

Another surge of nausea.

The mental exhaustion of reading was immense.

But Scarlet made up her mind.

She faced the past she didn’t know and a desire for the truth rose. Her quick hand naturally grabbed the sword in reverse.

Clang─!

She stabbed the sword with all her strength into the heart of the portrait that depicted her.

Boom─!

At the same time, her heart beat loudly.

A feeling of losing her soul from her body. Her vision shook and her senses stopped for a moment.

“Ugh…!”

Her reason was cut off several times and then reconnected.

“Ha, ha….”

When she could finally breathe. Scarlet looked around, panting.

It was the sword training ground of the Judith family.

There was a bright sun in the sky, and somewhere, birds sang sweetly. Nearby, there were wooden dummies.

“…!”

And the next moment. She was startled.

In front of her.

“Who are you?”

A young Flan tilted his head.

◈

“Do you have something to say to me?”

The little Flan looked up at Scarlet.

Scarlet narrowed her eyes at the incomprehensible situation.

Was it a reading in the form of an experience?

She didn’t know.

“Hello?”

“Ah, yes.”

Scarlet answered awkwardly at Flan’s urging.

It was not only the situation, but also the appearance of Flan in front of her that was awkward.

His healthy sweat, his lively eyes, his armor, his wooden sword in his hand.

All of it was so unfamiliar to me.

“…Strange.”

I touched my forehead with my hand.

I should have this memory in my head, but why did the young Flan look so foreign to me?

It was a different feeling from ‘I forgot over time’.

I felt something odd about it.

He was barely tall enough to reach my stomach.

Flan opened his mouth again.

“Shall I escort you to the reception room of the mansion?”

“No need. I just stopped by.”

“Ah, then I’ll excuse myself.”

Flan passed by me with a light greeting.

He stood in front of the wooden dummy and started swinging his wooden sword with all his strength.

His swordsmanship was quite neat.

He looked like he was at the level of a master, even at a glance.

‘It’s different from my memory.’

Did he swing his sword so well when he was this small?

When he grew up to reach my chest, I think he was being bullied by me a lot.

The pieces in my head didn’t fit.

“…”

Anyway, I felt so strange watching Flan swing his sword.

“That’s not how you swing it.”

I snatched Flan’s sword.

Even though it was a wooden sword, the dummy was cut in half as if it was sliced by steel.

“Wow…”

Flan exclaimed.

He asked me as he took back his sword.

“I didn’t know. You’re a knight?”

“Yes.”

I nodded quietly.

“Your colleagues must be envious. They get to see your swordsmanship all the time. Can I ask you again someday?”

“You’re not self-taught, are you?”

“Yes. My mother sometimes teaches me. Huh?”

Suddenly, Flan’s eyes widened.

“Come to think of it, your swordsmanship is very similar to my mother’s.”

“Hmm.”

Once again, my head felt like a puzzle.

Wouldn’t it be more natural to say ‘it’s similar to my sister’s swordsmanship’ in this situation?

“Well, whatever.”

But I soon shrugged off my worries.

I had successfully entered the memory, so I could look at it with my own eyes from now on.

Whoosh!

Flan started swinging his sword again.

I stared at him blankly.

His passionate look, his fiery spirit, his boldness, they all made my heart flutter.

My body reacted strangely as if by instinct.

Flan kept swinging his sword.

I just watched him.

And at some point, I muttered without knowing.

“Why are you working so hard? You’re going to give up the sword anyway…”

“Never.”

I was surprised.

Flan, who was swinging his sword, was looking at me with a very serious expression.

“I’ll never give up the sword.”

I felt his answer was a bit brazen, knowing that he eventually gave up the sword. But at the same time, I couldn’t read any lies on his face.

“Wait.”

No.

I don’t remember.

‘Why did he give up the sword…?’

Come to think of it, I only had the result of him giving up the sword in my head. I couldn’t remember the exact reason at all.

“…What did you swing the sword for?”

“That’s obvious.”

Flan laughed. He looked like he heard a very easy question.

“To protect the people I cherish.”

“To protect the people you cherish?”

“Yes. Until the last moment, I’ll swing the sword for the sake of the people I love.”

There was a moment of silence.

It couldn’t be helped.

I had nothing to say, facing his sincere eyes.

Swoosh!

A cool breeze swept over our bodies.

It made his jet-black hair flutter.

“You, who…”

I opened my mouth again. In a faint voice.

“Why did you put down your sword? As if to show off.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Flan looked back and forth between Scarlet and the wooden sword in his hand.

Knowing that he could not give any answer, knowing that it was only a memory, Scarlet asked in a thin voice.

“Did you not care about your family?”

“I did. Very much.”

“Then why did you betray them?”

Scarlet’s voice became more and more shaky.

“Family. Especially your sister. What was the reason for giving up your sword, even if it meant disappointing her?”

“….”

Flan did not say anything.

It was not a question that he expected an answer to. It was just a fragment of memory in front of his eyes.

But then.

“I…”

Flan uttered something that was shocking.

“I don’t have a sister.”

“…!”

Scarlet opened her eyes wide.

Flan had just said that he did not have a sister.

She put her trembling hand on her chest. Her heart was pounding like crazy.

Crack, she felt something in her head shatter like glass.

As she barely licked her lips to ask him again.

“Oh, Flan!”

A bright voice came from the other side.

“Flan! I missed you!”

A small girl ran over and hugged Flan.

The girl was someone that Scarlet knew well.

She gasped.

The girl who hugged Flan with joy on her face, the girl who had black hair like a shadow, was.

“…me.”

Scarlet Judith.

It was herself.

One by one.

Finally.

The memories that had been asleep began to surface.