Rebirth of the 8th-Circle Mage

‘His brother?’

Henry was a little surprised to hear that the corpse in front of him was Dracan's biological brother. He had thought that Dracan had just stolen a random person’s corpse.

‘Uh… I kinda feel sorry…’

Perhaps it was because of Henry’s prejudice against Dracan. In addition, Henry was surprised to know that Dracan actually had a family. He hadn’t been aware of this before.

‘It wasn’t even recorded in the directory either.’

Before finding Dracan, Henry had looked through Dracan’s directory. In the past, he didn’t even know there was a wizard named Dracan, but now, no wizard interested Henry as much as him.

Dracan took out a piece of paper from his pocket and held it out to Henry.

“Let me show you this in advance so there won’t be any misunderstandings. This is my older brother’s handwritten will.”

It was easy to manipulate or distort a handwritten will using magic. That kind of magic only worked on ordinary people or wizards ranked lower than the caster. Thus, if Henry put his mind to it, he could quickly determine the authenticity of the handwriting. However, given the circumstances, he didn’t think Dracan would lie to him.

Henry carefully read the will Dracan had given him. It stated that Dracan’s brother wanted Dracan to use his body for his studies when he died.

“My older brother understood my struggles well. As a wizard specializing in anthropology, I constantly faced challenges due to the lack of human subjects for my research. So my brother willingly bequeathed his body to me as a legacy for my studies.”

“So you set up a secret laboratory and treated his corpse with magic to prevent it from decomposing?”

“Yes.”

“So, did you make any progress with your brother’s corpse?” Henry asked in a sharper tone than before. Even though his brother had agreed to this, Dracan had still gone against the rules of the Magical Spire and committed an inhumane act.

“Yes, thanks to him, I’ve made several discoveries that can help advance anthropology.”

“Such as?”

“This is what I’ve obtained.”

Dracan handed Henry a thick leather bound book from the corner of the laboratory. It had the title “Human Anatomy” written across it.

‘Anatomy? Is there stuff regarding corpse dissection?’

Henry knew what animal anatomy was, but this was the first time he heard of human anatomy. As he stared at the title, Henry felt that those two words shouldn’t have been put together in the first place.

As soon as Henry saw the word “dissection,” he immediately shifted his gaze toward the corpse in the back. After a closer look, he realized there were incision marks all over it. The body seemed like it had been put back together by magic, and some of the stitches looked out of place, probably because of how many times the corpse had been dissected and reassembled.

‘Is this..?’

At that moment, a rather sinister thought passed through Henry’s mind. He quickly reopened the book and was shocked once again by the table of contents.

‘What in the world-?!’

As he flipped to the pages, Henry realized that the book did in fact contain everything there was to know about human anatomy. He read how many bones a human had, how they looked, and where specific bones were located in the body.

The book even described the shape and location of each organ in great detail.

Henry frowned more and more as he kept flipping through the pages, and Dracan watched him in silence.

Henry quickly confirmed that this Human Anatomy book was full of inhumane content that clearly went against the rules of the Magical Spire. But ironically, the content was also very interesting.

‘And it’s useful too.’

Not a single piece of information from this book was useless. Although the contents of the book were grotesque, they would certainly contribute to the development of anthropology. They weren’t some prank or a sick joke.

Before he knew it, Henry was completely hooked on this book.

“Archmage?”

“...”

“Archmage?”

“Ah! Uh, yeah. Alright.”

Henry had been so captivated by the book that he hadn’t even heard Dracan at first. Taken aback, he quickly closed the book and gave it back to Dracan, who held it tightly to his chest.

Henry could tell from Dracan’s eyes how nervous he was. He seemed worried about what would happen with his research. However, there was something else; Dracan wanted to know what Henry, the 8th-Circle Archmage, thought about his work.

Henry couldn’t help but chuckle at the contradictory situation.

‘I can’t believe he was this passionate about his research!’

Henry had previously only known Dracan as a wizard who had gone mad and used his connection to Arthus to pursue his ambitions in magic.

What Henry hadn't realized was that Dracan's ultimate wish was actually to advance the field of anthropology. After all, his passion had pushed him to hide his brother’s corpse in a secret laboratory and conduct experiments on it.

And even now, even though Dracan was worried and had been forced to reveal his secret to Henry, he seemed eager to find out the evaluation of his research rather than fear punishment for his endeavor.

‘Maybe he’s not as evil as I thought.’

“Dracan.”

“Yes, Archmage.”

“You must have been through a lot.”

“...Yes?”

“Although I’ve only managed to read a few parts, I have to say that I’m very impressed. You must be crazy to think of dissecting a human being.”

‘Crazy?’

Dracan couldn’t tell if Henry was complimenting him or not. However, he quickly realized how Henry felt based on his smile.

‘He’s smiling…?’

Dracan could clearly tell that Henry’s smile wasn’t sarcastic or disparaging. There was even a slight sense of warmth from his smile.

‘Really…?’

Seeing his smile, Dracan gained hope that something positive would come out of this interaction.

“But there is one very important thing missing from your book.”

“Something important? What part are you talking about?”

“There is no motive behind your book.”

“Motive, Archmage?”

“Yeah. People have a reason for being busy with a particular thing. Some do it for a living, some for fun. However, I can’t tell from this book what the motive, the reason behind your research is.”

Indeed, Dracan’s book merely contained knowledge about human anatomy, nothing else. There wasn’t anything written about Dracan’s motivation behind this, and Henry was quite curious about that.

Henry wanted to know how the most malevolent wizard in history, the one who had almost destroyed the entire continent, had become obsessed with anthropology.

“People… I want to fix people,” said Dracan.

“Fix people?”

“Yes, Archmage. If you don’t mind, may I tell you a little bit about myself?”

“Alright. Let’s hear it.”

“Thank you. First of all, I lost my parents during an epidemic when I was younger and was raised by my older brother…”

This was the first time Henry heard about Dracan’s history, and he was all ears. As Henry sipped on his tea, Dracan continued to share his story, and by the time he was finished, Henry understood Dracan’s obsession with anthropology.

‘I see. He’s so obsessed because of his family.’

From his story, it seemed that Dracan had managed to become a wizard thanks to his brother's devoted support. But tragically, his brother had also passed away from a disease, and the timing had been terrible as well.

Dracan had lost his brother right after becoming the chief wizard of the Magical Spire, when he could finally make a living for both of them.

“I’ve never had any luck with diseases. Even though my parents suffered from a contagious disease, they never even had the chance to receive help from a low-ranking priest. As for my brother, he succumbed to a serious illness that couldn’t be cured with the healing powers of an ordinary priest.”

“And so, that made you major in anthropology? To treat illnesses with precise magic rather than with the healing methods of the priests?”

“Yes, Archmage.”

“I see. I now understand why you chose this field and why you’re absorbed in your research.”

Dracan’s motive was rather simple, but the despair that had led to it was anything but simple. And Henry knew despair well. After all, it was despair that had pushed him to kill the Heavenly God and seek out the King of Gods to go back in time.

Dracan looked at Henry with nervous eyes while holding his book tightly in his hand. Now that he had revealed all his secrets, he was waiting for Henry’s decision. He almost looked like a scared animal, waiting for its turn at the slaughterhouse.

However, Henry had already made his decision.

“Dracan, there’s no need to look at me like that. You’re not a sinner. Rather, you’re a great wizard that deserves praise.”

“...Okay?”

Dracan’s pupils dilated.

“You heard me. As I said before, I’m really impressed with your research on human anatomy. I feel like I’ve gotten a wake-up call from your research.”

Henry gave his honest assessment based on what he had read from Dracan’s book and what he had heard from him.

“You really are innocent. Both as a wizard and as a regular person, you’ve always followed your heart. And because of you, I’ve realized that I was making a very big mistake."

While reflecting on Dracan, Henry also looked back on himself and realized his mistake. He had always expected everyone to agree with what he considered to be right.

“Standards should be developed with wizards from all fields. However, as an Archmage, I have set the spire’s rules on my own and imposed them on everyone, much like a tyrant would. But thanks to you, I’ve realized that my approach was wrong.”

“Archmage…!’

“You must’ve been through a lot. I can’t even begin to imagine how you felt, having to repeatedly carve and stitch up your brother’s body without even being able to give him a proper funeral.”

It turned out that Dracan’s nature and personality were in contrast to his ghostly appearance. Henry now understood everything, including why Dracan avoided others and why he hadn’t hired an assistant wizard. He had been fighting his battle alone.

‘Dracan… You’re the true hero of the Magical Spire.’

Henry patted Dracan on the shoulder.

“Thank you… Thank you…!” Dracan burst into tears.

“Let it out. You deserve it.”

Henry then patted Dracan on the back as he sobbed.

“Dracan, I swear on my name that your brother will receive a grand funeral, and all the wizards of the Magical Spire will attend and pay their respect. As for the experimental subjects to be used in future anthropology research, they are…”

Henry thought about the materials needed for advancing anthropology—in other words, the test subjects. He knew that Dracan had become Arthus’ henchman because he had been promised an unlimited supply of human subjects for experimentation.

And so, Henry planned to match Arthus’ offer.

“I promise that from now on, you will no longer have to perform your experiments in hiding. We’ll fully support all wizards in anthropology to conduct human experiments freely."

“D-do you really mean that…?”

Dracan couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He just couldn’t believe that Henry Morris himself had just said that out loud. It was surreal.

As Dracan looked at him with an astonished expression, Henry smiled and asked, “Do you know anything about Killive?”