Necromancer Of The Black Bible (96)

I stared at Master for a moment.

Suddenly, something I wanted to ask him came directly to mind.

So I approached my past self and tried to possess his body.

I wondered if it was even possible, but the response came faster than expected.

Along with a dizzying sensation, I could look at Master from my past self’s perspective.

I barely suppressed the overwhelming emotions and asked him.

“Master, have you also made sacrifices?”

“That’s a difficult question.”

Master’s eyes deepened.

A conversation with a young disciple with whom the relationship was still awkward.

It was clearly a conversation he could avoid if he wanted, yet Master continued it seriously.

“I have made many sacrifices.”

He let out a deep sigh once and continued.

“At first, I sacrificed for revenge. But I soon regretted it. It was something I should never have sacrificed.”

“Did your revenge succeed?”

Master shook his head.

Then, meeting my eyes, he answered.

“Even if the revenge had succeeded, I would have regretted it deeply.”

“Then why did you tell me that?”

“Because I thought you would be able to make sacrifices without hesitation.”

“…!!!”

I couldn’t continue speaking.

Master gazed at me with hollow eyes and continued.

“The reason I chose you at the orphanage was because of those eyes. And after hearing that you were betrayed by those you trusted, became crippled, turned into a loner, and remained in that place until you were twenty, I became certain. You have no hope in this world. Only despair and rage fill you. And I thought: If it’s you, couldn’t you make all the necessary sacrifices and take revenge on this world? Couldn’t you turn upside down the world that made me like this?”

Master’s trembling voice carried various emotions.

Emotions I had always felt from him.

‘Longing. Regret. Pity.’

Facing his emotions fully, I asked,

“Then… Master, do you wish for me to destroy this world?”

Master stared at me quietly for a moment.

Then he shook his head slowly and spoke.

“No. No. It seems I said something unnecessary.”

He waved his hand and sat in front of the crackling campfire.

Then he took out a dead rabbit from his pocket and skinned it.

Master skewered the skinned rabbit and hung it over the fire.

I asked again.

“Master, what is the purpose of this journey?”

“That’s a profound question.”

Master hung the second rabbit over the fire and looked at me as he spoke.

“I’ll say it only once, so listen closely. The reason I took you in and we’re traveling like this is because I want to turn everything back.”

“If it’s everything…”

“To go back to before I made those sacrifices.”

“Do you need me for that?”

Master looked into my eyes and answered.

“I do.”

With that answer, I was released from the possession.

Then I passed through a long tunnel and returned to my original body.

When I came to my senses, my heart was swollen as if it would burst.

Equinox’s urgent voice rang out.

[Will you endure it like this? Or…]

I had already made up my mind during the recent time travel.

So without hesitation, I stood up.

[This way won’t work.]

This is not the sacrifice I should make.

The sacrifice Master made was not some imitation like this.

A fatal sacrifice that would make one regret their entire life.

His fifth Mana Ring was obtained only after such a sacrifice.

I decided not to disregard Master’s precedent.

‘I know who I need to find.’

The only person I truly hated.

The only person, throughout my previous life, I ever wanted to meet again.

‘Emma.’

I will go find her.

And I will sacrifice her to obtain my fifth Mana Ring.

Finding Emma was not difficult.

The Oracle operating at the Ethereal Gate was equipped with such a function.

“The Oracle was originally an artifact created to locate created beings and connect their souls to the Ethereal Realm. God used it to teach the created beings…”

“El. Stop. I’m no longer curious about what the god intended to do with it.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I’ve heard enough, so find the person I want.”

“Understood.”

I spoke the name ‘Emma,’ and El showed candidates through the crystal orb floating in the air.

But that alone wasn’t enough to find her.

There were far too many Emmas, so additional information was needed.

I briefly recalled memories from my previous life.

However, aside from her nickname ‘Queen Bee,’ no other memories came to mind.

‘Come to think of it…’

Right after regressing, when I offered the entire orphanage as a sacrifice, I had kept one ledger.

That ledger contained complete records of all the children who had passed through the orphanage.

Originally I would have had to find and check the ledger myself, but now I don’t need to.

Because I can revisit past events anytime.

I closed my eyes and concentrated for a moment.

As time slowed in the present, I began traveling back into the past.

Because I had been immersed for so long in training and purifying Mana Rings, I hadn’t realized how much time had passed.

Looking back, three years had passed since my regression.

I had trained in the Sand Dragon’s lair for nearly a year, and even after arriving in the Theocracy, two more years had gone by.

‘I must have been quite out of it. The years changed three times…’

As I reflected on that.

I arrived at the moment I had picked up the ledger at the orphanage.

I stood beside my past self as he calmly flipped through the ledger page by page.

Then I carefully examined the information written on the pages.

‘Here she is. Emma, 13 years old.’

Emma’s family name was not written.

Because she was also an orphan.

Just as I had no surname, an abandoned orphan would not have a family name.

However, the note that followed was a major clue.

<Adopted into the Leopold von Eckhart family.>

The moment I saw that sentence, several memories from my previous life flashed by.

-They say the Queen Bee was adopted into an imperial noble family.

-Not just her, but Boss Dexter and his right-hand Revan are also being adopted into the empire?

-Andre is going to the Theocracy. Seems he made a good impression on a High Priest.

-So jealous. I wish I could go like that too…

Even without using any special ability to recall, the envious voices of the children remain vivid in my ears.

That memory was etched that strongly in me.

‘So the imperial noble family was the Eckhart family. That’s quite a shock.’

Leopold von Eckhart is the greatest mage on the continent.

He is known as a master of 7th-circle magic, and even Master, an 8th-Circle black mage and necromancer, could not guarantee victory against him.

In particular, he was an expert in flame magic and was said to be the only one on the continent capable of using Meteor Storm.

Meteor Storm is the secret technique of the Eckhart family, and records remain that the central-western continent, once lush forest, became the current Dead Lands because of the Eckhart family’s mages.

According to my memory, Eckhart derives from the ancient Crimson Dragon Eckhart. In other words, it is a family born from the pact between the first emperor of the empire and the Crimson Dragon Eckhart.

Nocturne provided good information at the perfect moment.

I too had read similar content in a history book I stole from the imperial archives long ago.

<Two thousand years before the founding of the Valkyr Empire, the continent was filled with chaos. That chaos stemmed from the rise of the Demon Kings. The one who unified it was the first emperor, Sigmund Reinhardt. At that time, with the help of the Crimson Dragon Eckhart, he defeated the Demon Kings and founded the Sigmund Empire.>

From such information, the Eckhart family is a venerable house with a history far longer than even the current Valkyr Empire.

‘So she was adopted into such a family.’

Something felt off.

Like the pieces didn’t quite fit perfectly?

Why would a family born from a pact between the first emperor and an ancient dragon adopt someone?

As if agreeing with my reasoning, Equinox, who had been silent until now, spoke.

[The Eckhart family was founded 100 years after Kallios’s death. Over three thousand years have passed since then. Merely existing with that name is already a miracle.]

I understood what Equinox was trying to say.

Nations founded by humans have short lifespans.

The empire itself has been refounded several times, and kingdoms that failed to become empires have risen and fallen in various ways.

Even if the Eckhart family has continued its line, it would be difficult for it to be in a normal form.

At that moment, Nocturne’s voice came.

After hearing the old man’s words, I looked into it too. Among the history books I remember is one titled ‘The Eckhart Family—Does Dragon Blood Still Flow in Them?’ It mentions that within the Eckhart family, several factions have split, with a long history of killing one another.

I calmly listened to Nocturne’s explanation.

It was actually quite obvious.

Just like the history of other kingdoms, they repeatedly killed each other within the family to become the head.

What caught my attention was the final outcome of that content.

<Eckhart broke the pact their progenitor established. As a result, their blood has been tainted, and it is possible that no more unparalleled mages capable of changing history will be born. For now, they produce a 7th-circle archmage every hundred years, but… The Eckhart recorded in history was not at this level.>

Quite a pointed statement.

Most of the archmages of the Eckhart family recorded in ancient history books were 9th-Circle.

They single-handedly defeated armies of the Great Demon King and quelled the chaos of the continent.

But would Leopold von Eckhart truly be capable of that?

In my previous life, he displayed overwhelming power against small nations, but he never faced a Demon King.

Considering that Illinas has a 10th-Circle archmage, Shador, Leopold’s level would not be enough to face him.

‘I’m starting to understand. Why Emma was adopted into the Eckhart family.’

Because without adoption, they could not acquire children with talent in magic.

I don’t remember what talent Emma had.

I only remember seeing her faintly smiling behind Dexter’s gang.

‘If that method worked there as well, she might be living comfortably by now.’

Three years since her adoption.

Emma, now 16, is probably at the imperial academy.

Next year she will come of age and graduate, so she might be a highly promising student by now.

‘I’m looking forward to it.’

I recalled the smile she gave me with shining eyes when she broke one of my legs in my previous life.

In response, the Mana Ring in my heart reacted.

‘An emotion I haven’t felt in a long time.’

Affection mixed with hatred.

The excitement I felt back then, when I had just entered puberty, was mixed with humiliation, hatred, and self-loathing.

Feeling that unfamiliar emotion, I returned to reality.

Then I turned to Eliastra and spoke.

“I’ll go to the surface for a while. You govern the Theocracy. Contact me if anything happens.”

“Understood, Master.”

Leaving behind the bowing El and the subordinates, I stepped into the warp gate.

With a dizzying sensation, I descended to the surface.