Rebirth of the 8th-Circle Mage

Henry got up to leave his lab. He was on the highest floor of the Magical Spire, a room that only he could enter. Stepping outside his room, he could see the bottom of the tower as if he were standing on a cliff.

The spire was enormous, significantly larger than the first Magical Spire and the Snow Spire Henry would’ve built in the future. There were floating stones flying throughout the inside of the tower, which would sometimes turn into a set of stairs. And near them were doors with irregular patterns.

The doors led to wizards’ private laboratories, assigned to them based on their Circles. A wizard had to at least awaken the 4th-Circle in order to receive their own laboratory.

Henry pulled the floating stone closest to his lab door and went on it.

“Move.”

At his command, the floating stone moved. As it went down, the wizards working outside their labs bowed toward Henry.

“Greetings, Archmage!”

“Hi,” Henry replied with a faint smile. Even though he was the leader of the spire, no one was afraid to greet him. After all, he had taken the initiative to eliminate any sense of authority or hierarchy within the Magical Spire.

‘Seems like it’s working.’

Henry smiled in satisfaction. He used to think that it was natural for leaders in high positions of power to have authority over others. After all, authority was associated with dignity, and it even made one seem more worthy.

Indeed, in his past life, Henry also had a sense of authority, spurred on by his magic elitism.

‘I was immature back then.’

Of course, those traits were one of the things Henry felt regretful about, and they were part of the reason Henry had come back to this point in time. Besides fixing everything within the empire, Henry had also wanted to fix himself.

And just like that, Henry no longer believed in authority or elitism. He had tried to diminish the sense of authority within the spire because of the unique, heavy atmosphere caused by authoritative figures.

Of course, not all leaders created such an ambiance, but newcomers, regardless of their field, tended to put their leaders on a pedestal, which made it hard for themselves to approach those leaders and interact with them.

Henry knew that this would eventually lead to difficulties in voicing concerns or asking favors from those figures. Besides, he considered that hierarchy made for prejudices against leaders.

And so, in an effort to break down stereotypes and preconceptions, he always smiled at his subordinates and spoke to them in a carefree manner so that the atmosphere would be as light as possible within the Magical Spire.

And this was all because of a certain person he had written down in his planner.

The floating stone eventually came to a stop in front of a personal laboratory located in the lower levels of the Magical Spire. As he saw the name by the door, Henry burst into laughter. He then composed himself and took a couple of breaths.

Knock, knock-

Henry lightly knocked on the wooden floor, the cheery sound echoing through the Magical Spire. Some rustling came from inside, and quickly after, the door swung open with a creak.

However, Henry couldn’t see anything inside, as there were no lights. It seemed that the person inside purposefully kept his laboratory dark.

But then, a ghostly figure emerged from the darkness.

“... Archmage?”

The specter was none other than Dracan Rotique. He looked just as Henry remembered him—tall, ghostly pale, his hair stretching past his shoulders.

Dracan was surprised to see Henry in front of his lab, but despite his reaction, Henry maintained his smile.

“You have time for tea?” asked Henry.

A couple of years after the founding of the empire, Henry was finally prepared to meet Dracan.

***

Dracan prepared tea for both of them. Henry glanced around the room as he waited. He saw a few desks and shelves filled with books. It seemed like any other wizard’s laboratory.

“Are you the number one wizard now?”

"Yes, Archmage.”

“I bet you’re wondering why I came to visit you all a sudden.”

“...Yes.”

“I was just curious how you were doing. I actually found something interesting while I was flipping through the spire directory. Apparently you still haven’t hired a single assistant wizard, despite achieving the 4th-Circle a long time ago. Is there a particular reason behind this?”

The 4th-Circle made one of the highest-ranked wizards in the tower. In other words, they were the chief wizards. The 5th-Circle made one a mage, and from the 6th-Circle onward, one was an Archmage.

Within the Magical Spire, a 4th-Circle mage could have their own personal wizard as an assistant, someone below the 3rd-Circle. However, Dracan had yet to recruit someone to be his personal assistant

“Uh, it’s just that I didn’t really feel the need to have one.”

“You didn’t feel the need?”

“Yes.”

“Seems like your personal research is going smoothly then.”

“Yes.”

All the wizards in the spire that were assigned a laboratory were required to conduct at least one kind of personal research. That rule existed simply to ensure that the development of magic never stopped.

However, the ironic part was that the wizards weren’t obligated to report to their superiors on what they were researching, as Henry believed that they deserved privacy.

Henry sipped his tea and stared at Dracan. The number one wizard’s eyes were droopy, and his expression hadn’t changed at all since Henry had greeted him. One would say, based on his appearance, that Dracan had some sort of problem, but in fact, most of the wizards of the spire were like that.

The more Henry thought about that, the more fascinating it was.

‘To think this guy would become such a crazy person…’

In the previous timeline, Dracan had created the blind believers, the worst disaster that not even Henry, a literal god at that point, hadn’t been able to do anything about. That alone made Dracan the most dangerous and evil wizard on the continent.

But now, Henry was here to prevent that tragedy.

“Dracan.”

“Yes, Archmage.”

“Can you show me the research you’re currently working on?”

“My research…?”

“Yeah.”

At this, Dracan’s murky eyes twitched for a split second. After a brief silence, Dracan replied, “Yes, of course.”

Surprisingly, Dracan agreed to show Henry his work. He took out a book from the bookshelf behind him and held it out to Henry.

“I’m deciphering this old book.”

“This old book, you say?”

This time, Dracan’s expression remained neutral. Although he wasn’t the most expressive fellow to begin with, Henry could still tell if he was telling the truth or not, and this time, he was.

After briefly glancing at Dracan, Henry shifted his gaze on the old book. There was a notebook slipped in the middle of the book, seemingly used for deciphering the ancient text.

Henry realized that this book was written in ancient runes. Deciphering such a piece of literature would certainly be a difficult undertaking for a 4h-Circle wizard, but still, Henry didn’t think that this was Dracan’s actual research.

After skimming through it briefly, Henry closed the book and said, “Amazing stuff. You’re only at the 4th-Circle, and yet you can decipher such an ancient text…”

“Thank you, Archmage.”

“If only you were as good at lying as you are at deciphering…”

“Pardon?”

“Come on, Dracan. Don’t play dumb with me. You’re showing me this book to hide your real research.”

Dracan hadn’t expected Henry to call him out. He had expected Henry to just leave after complimenting his work. His eyes twitched again, but just like earlier, he instantly composed himself.

“…Archmage, I’m not sure what you’re talking about,” Dracan blurted out as though he had prepared this answer just in case.

Dracan’s expression barely changed, but Henry had seen the surprise in his eyes. Even so, he knew better than to take an aggressive approach and chastise Dracan. He could already tell that Dracan would run away like a lizard after cutting off its own tail if he pressured him.

“Don’t worry. I’m not trying to interrogate you based on some rumor. I just came here because I’m interested in your research.”

“Archmage, as I said before, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“You sure? Well then, I’ll give you one last chance. If you tell me the truth about your research right now, I’ll secretly support it.”

“...Oh?”

At this, Dracan’s expression changed, and it wasn’t subtle or for a brief moment like earlier. His reaction essentially confirmed to Henry that he had been lying. Dracan himself realized this and tried to mask his surprise, but it was already too late.

“Dracan Rotique, what are you so afraid of? What is preventing you from being honest with me?”

Henry’s attitude toward Dracan remained consistent.

“I believe that a wizard’s intellectual curiosity should be respected. I firmly believe that magic will stop developing if curiosity is suppressed.”

“A-Archmage…!”

At this, Dracan’s pupils dilated. He didn’t consider Henry to be an authoritarian ruler, but he hadn’t thought that the one who had built the Magical Spire and ran the imperial palace had such a mentality.

Dracan felt that his preconceptions about Henry were crumbling. He closed his eyes. Although Henry’s proposal was straightforward, the impact it had on Dracan was great. And so, Dracan needed a few moments to process everything.

‘Do I have no other choice but to tell him…?’

Dracan was moved by Henry’s mentality and how considerate he was. However, he was still scared of telling him the truth. After all, the research he was secretly conducting was, from a certain perspective, extremely inhumane.

But even so, there was no turning back now, and Dracan was well aware of that. Although the greatest wizard on the continent was speaking calmly to him, Dracan couldn’t imagine what disaster might befall him if he kept pushing Henry.

Indeed, Henry had to know everything. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have said everything he had to Dracan.

At last, Dracan sighed softly and said, “I… apologize. I’ll tell you the truth.”

“There's no need to apologize. I won’t be upset, no matter what your research involves. Could you show it to me?”

Henry did his best not to scare Dracan. Of course, he could’ve discovered Dracan’s research forcefully. After all, Dracan was just a young wizard who had just reached the 4th-Circle, whereas Henry was the only Archmage on the continent who had reached the 8th-Circle.

But Henry had decided against that. He felt that truth was more valuable if it was revealed willingly rather than by force.

Having made up his mind, Dracan snapped his fingers, causing the bookshelf behind him to rotate, revealing a hidden room.

“If you could come this way.”

The room beyond the bookshelf was similar to the secret mansion Henry had prepared in the corner of his laboratory, although the principle was different. Dracan was merely at the 4th-Circle, so he couldn’t possibly use the kind of spatial magic that Henry used.

‘Seems like he’s dug a hole himself to create some secret laboratory.’

And so, his secret laboratory was much smaller than Henry’s secret mansion. The secret laboratory was in total darkness, but Dracan soon lit it up.

Snap!

At his snap, light filled the room. Then Henry saw a corpse lying on a bed in the center.

‘What? A corpse?’

It seemed like that person had died a long time ago. The body was lying in an upright position, and there was no hair left on it.

Dracan went in front of the corpse and said, “Archmage, my field of study is anthropology, and I’ve long held a deep interest in the human body."

“Go on…”

“However, advancing anthropology at the Magical Spire is challenging because it prioritizes humanity. Even though we study anthropology, we rarely get the chance to examine the human body directly."

“You have a point. Like you know, the Magical Spire prohibits using human bodies as research materials… But who’s this person?”

Henry fixed his gaze on the pale, stiff corpse. Dracan also looked at it and frowned, not out of anger but out of sadness. After squinting his eyes hard for a while, he finally spoke up.

“He is… my older brother.”