The Regressed SSS-Rank Water Mage Wants To Live a Calm Life-Chapter 30: The Anomaly Lore [2]

Did Maxwell know him? Oh, he knew him all too well, alright.

The Flameworths had been the major flame mage family a few decades ago. They were once the Duchy of the west. But now it was Belognia, Maxwell’s family, that held the title.

The previous Emperor, Jolari — a rumored immortal that’d ruled the Empire for centuries, killing his successors and wearing their skin — had destroyed the Flameworths out of fear because he could no longer keep them and their anomaly in his grip.

It all happened when he was away from the continent, so when Charles Liam Flameworth came back to Levaria...

"He killed the Emperor," Max nodded. "And then he disappeared."

Vin nodded.

"Yes," he picked up his wet sword on the ground, clenched it, then sheathed it. "And do you know of the legendary Mercenary King Blank?"

"Yes. A mercenary from Gislow’s guild. He’s the second S-rank, the one who singlehandedly ended the Great Orcan War that’d lasted centuries because of the continent’s greed. I remember Eithan saying," Maxwell held his chin, as though recalling something. "The times of the Orcan war were when mercenaries benefited greatly from the Empire. It was even necessary for all mages who graduated from the imperial academy to enlist in the war for a few years. The mercenary, Blank, ended the war by killing the Orcan King, Jiraivmeth."

"And that propelled his fame," Vin sighed. "He went further to do a lot of great things after that. And the best part about his lore is that no one ever knew his face. He always wore a black, blank mask. Only his fallen master, the former second great lance of Nuncapor, the golden swordsman Kairo, knew his face. But the old man died in the Orcan war; he’d carried poison in his system for years."

"Why are we discussing this again?" Maxwell asked, genuinely curious.

Vin raised a hand, as if telling Maxwell to wait.

"Blank wielded a Chakram. But he was also a mage. There were multiple reports of him wielding... flames. Sometimes, wind magic, using elemental mana like ’Force’ and imbuing his weapon with it."

Max’s eyes widened.

"Do you get my point?" Vin asked.

"Blank was Charles?"

"Yes, and they both disappeared at the same time. I think Guildmaster Gislow himself knows better. He knew Blank face-to..mask, he was friends with Blank’s master. When Blank became the strongest, wealthiest and most famous mercenary in the entire world, they had no chance but to give him the title of the mercenary king."

"Your point is?"

"They say he too disappeared after hitting the fabled 10th-circle. But no one knows where."

Maxwell, at this point, chuckled. Genuinely chuckled.

’Disappeared? What a load of bullshit. If Charles had indeed ascended from this cradled world, then the disaster coming in five years would’ve never happened.’

Maxwell, about to shrug off the topic, cleared his throat, walking deeper into the red valley.

’I think Vin’s trying to make a point that every anomaly eventually surpasses the 9th-circle. How pure.’

"Let’s go."

Vin remained seated.

"And there were reports three years ago of a third anomaly in Nuncapor."

Maxwell froze.

"They say he’s a man raised in a family of swordsmen in the Kafer Empire. But this swordsman has something special about him. His gathered mana has an element, typical of any magic swordsman who has an affinity to an element and still decides to learn swordsmanship, but this man’s element, just like Krian the great, isn’t one of the four known elements."

Maxwell slowly turned his neck, looking at Vin with furrowed brows.

"His element is darkness."

"And what is this young man’s name?"

"Oh, he’s gained quite a reputation that even a lowly swordsman like myself in Levaria knows of him. They call him The Reaper, a man who shows no mercy to his enemies. His name...

Is Malin."

Maxwell raised a brow, then lowered said brow, then shook his head. And he smiled.

"Of course," he whispered.

"And you are the fourth anomaly, Maxwell. I think it’s a rare chance to see two anomalies in the same generation. Krian was of an earlier generation, when the demi-humans in Elyrus and the humans in the rest of the world hadn’t made a treaty of peace, when beasts and monsters swarmed out of portals made by Elves every single day to attack the world..." Vin chuckled. "Come to speak of it, the Great Orcan War began just because the Orcan King wanted to conquer the world, and he broke the treaty by attacking countries and Nations in Levaria." Vin shrugged. "Well, anyway, Blank... the last time Blank was seen was about twenty years ago."

"What I’m saying is that you, Maxwell, have the potential to reach, or eventually surpass, the 9th-circle." Vin’s expression hardened. "And I believe you can–"

"Did you see what I did earlier? The way I made rain fall?" Maxwell interjected calmly, holding his waist.

Vin blinked, looking around and realizing that sometime during their conversation, the rain had stopped falling.

"Yes?"

"It wasn’t just a simple spell," Max said. "In fact, it was no spell at all. It’s something even your fabled 10th-circle mages, of water, won’t be able to do, not properly, at least. You see, 9th-circle water mages can’t control the blood in a person’s body because it isn’t made up of 100% water. But I can, because I don’t just control water, I control everything liquid. No, scratch that—"

At this point, Maxwell had grown irritated thinking of the calamity incoming in the next five years and how Charles was related to it all. It was Vin’s mistake to have reminded him.

"—This entire world is made up of 80% liquid. And the fact that it is so means that..."

Maxwell paused, blinked, and released the breath that he didn’t realize he’d been holding. Then he shook his head.

"Forgive me. I’ve spiraled. Please don’t call me an anomaly, even though I might be one." Maxwell began to walk forward. "Every beast in the valley is dead. Not just the Slimanders. I think we can get more rewards from that. Let’s go."

Frilo flew out of Maxwell’s soul.

Vin stood up from the ground, following behind Maxwell as Frilo perched on his head.