PGMTP - Chapter 1
"According to the Council's decision, Hela, you have been banished."
"…I've been banished?"
I twisted my lips.
What is this wretched thing even saying?
I took him off the street and taught him magic, and now he has no gratitude?
"Your alchemical methods are too dangerous and the things you have done have caused resentment. There are people who fear your reckless methods."
"…"
"Hela, if you accept the decision quietly, we will not take your life. We will destroy your magic heart that collects power, but we will allow you to live in peace."
I was speechless.
A boiling rage grew inside me. My eyes blinked rapidly between white and normal.
Melaine's words were not really about letting me live my life quietly.
He was just telling me to live quietly as an old man in the back room.
Although he was only a few years older than me, he was the first disciple, family, friend, and colleague I brought with me and we had gone through life and death together.
He was the only precious person who took several formulas from me.
"Who do you think built this magician's country, Sillophia?"
"Am I crazy? Or are you crazy?"
I chuckled in astonishment.
Then the ground shook heavily. Only Melaine, who had sentenced me to death, was standing safely inside the shaking tower.
I released my magical power from my body as I looked down at me from a slightly higher stage than me.
A dark magic circle was drawn on the ground as I willed it.
"I gave you a chance, Hela. I hoped you would seize that opportunity with an honest heart."
As I was distracted by Melaine in mid-air, chains screeched and shot up from the ground.
It was so fast that I couldn't react in time.
Instinctively, I stepped back, but this time, green tendrils like vines wrapped around my ankles.
My body lost its center of gravity and swayed heavily.
As if it had aimed for that moment, a white chain approached me, rattling and bound my limbs.
In an attempt to use magic to break the chains, my eyes widened in shock as my gathered magical power scattered in an instant.
"Melaine!"
I screamed his name like a scream, staring at him fiercely while wriggling my bound limbs.
"You, you... What is this?!"
"Did you recognize it? It's what Hela was making. I completed it myself."
he said, explaining with a murmured tone as his expression twisted.
"I told you that what you're doing is dangerous. Everything about you is a threat,"
he continued, and the moment he finished speaking, Hela took hold of her wand once again.
"Get ready,"
Melaine commanded, and the other wizards followed his orders as if it were natural.
They had been recruited within a day or two, and there was no hesitation in carrying out his orders.
I slumped to the ground with a helpless sigh.
All the strength left my legs, and the back of my head felt as warm as blood.
We were laughing and chatting over drinks just yesterday.
They say that anger can render one speechless, and I was experiencing that for myself today.
In a blocked throat, not even a gag came out.
I was so embarrassed by myself.
My foolishness of drinking and laughing with that guy until yesterday was beyond ridiculous.
I looked at the person standing on the podium, unable to move a finger.
The huge magic circle I had drawn had disappeared along with my magic, and in its place, a new magic circle with a blue and white light began to form.
There were only eight mages involved in drawing the new magic circle, and four assistants were there to replenish their magic.
"Annihilation magic...."
Looking at the formula, it was a complete annihilation magic.
I felt the will to completely erase me, my body, my soul, and my magic without leaving a trace.
It was a magic circle that I didn't even know.
I watched the magic circle being drawn on the floor where I was sitting.
They would have secretly met every night to conclude this research behind my back and researched magic circles to eliminate me.
Every morning, they would greet me, bow their heads, report to me, and pass by me. They must have had such thoughts.
"How could you do this?"
I asked, barely lifting my head while sitting.
Even to my question, Melaine only looked down at me, keeping his mouth shut.
He was always quiet and reserved. But was it necessary to keep his mouth shut in this situation?
When I lowered my gaze again, the light from the drawn magic circle flowed out and seeped into my body.
My body disappeared.
It wasn't burning, but turned into a finely crushed white powder made of light, crumbling like a sandcastle.
The light seeped into me, slowly beginning to erase my existence.
It seemed like they were trying to suppress me with the magic control device I created for the mage sinner and completely annihilate me with the annihilation magic.
I watched my legs disappearing like light, and it wasn't until my lower body was halfway gone that I slowly lifted my head towards the hopeless situation.
The situation was so absurd and shocking that I had no will to resist.
I slowly looked around.
No one sympathized with me or tried to save me.
This was my life and my path.
I still looked at Melaine, standing tall in that spot.
Boom!
The building shook violently as if it exploded.
"Ahh!"
"Grand Wizard Melaine!"
Seeing the chaotic scene, Melaine slowly raised his wand.
He stared at me and began to recite a spell in ancient language.
With him, a sinister energy flowed out of my half-dead body and wrapped around me. My eyes, reflecting on the marble, were no longer blue, but a sickly pale color.
"I will definitely kill you, even if I have to become undead to come back to life."
Melaine didn't say a word, but he didn't take his eyes off me.
I forced a smile, showing my broken teeth. The sinister energy around me was even more dangerous.
Now, the building was filled with Melaine's blue magic and the common energy that surrounded me. "I curse you, Melaine. I will curse you." "You can't do anything without your magic. You have become a useless and powerless person that you despise so much." "...Are you mocking me now?" "I'm just stating the facts, Hela. It seems that your dark magic that you boast about is of no use without the ability to control it." Melaine relaxed her stern expression and slowly narrowed her eyes. With him speaking like that, I must be completely in the position of the villain. But whatever. I will kill him. Even if I have to go back in time or be born again. I will definitely kill him. He betrayed my kindness and took away the most precious thing from me without even talking to me once. "Now, you won't even have time to do that." "Hah! Even if I rot away and die, even if I am born as a wretched and miserable creature, I will definitely tear your backbone out and die!" "Goodbye, Hela." Even with my outburst, Melaine pronounced our farewell calmly. How can he declare our farewell so casually? What was I to him, exactly? I thought we were good colleagues and partners. "You damn bastard who deserves to die!" The last thing I saw was the empty space where my body used to be, leaving no trace of my form.