Versatile Mage

Translated by XephiZ

Edited by Aelryinth

The mountain road on the west mountain forked into a little path that was inaccessible to cars.

Mochizuki Ken led Mo Fan and Mochizuki Chihaya to the path. To their surprise, the little rift valley had a secret memorial tablet. On it was a bouquet of flowers that was still not wilted yet, which clearly implied that someone had paid a visit here recently.

“I was the same as you, young and ruthless, and I didn’t consider the consequences before taking actions. The same, boring routine in the East Guardian Tower made us curious toward every little discovery. When he discovered the Essence Orb, he was so excited that he could not wait to bring it out,” Mochizuki Ken raised a jar of wine and slowly poured it across the memorial tablet.

Mo Fan went up closer and saw a name carved on the memorial tablet.

“Kazuaki?” Mochizuki Chihaya stared at the memorial tablet. It took her a while to collect her thoughts.

“Yeah, he was your brother Iwata’s biological father, and a close friend of mine,” said Mochizuki Ken.

“So you two brought the evil Essence Orb out in the past, just like us?” asked Mo Fan.

“It’s rather complicated. Chihaya’s mum Masako used to be extremely popular among the people in the Twin Guardian Towers… ugh, I guess the people nowadays would describe her as a goddess. Iwata’s father managed to stand out among the men and earned her affection, and soon, they gave birth to Iwata…” said Mochizuki Ken.

“Hang on, let’s skip the old love story, I just want to know about the last Red Demon,” Mo Fan was clearly impatient.

The incident was somehow related to the bizarre death of Lingling’s father. Mo Fan was eager to learn about the Red Demon. He had known Lingling for quite some time, and the only reason that the mature little girl looked down all the time was the dark red soul mark. If he could find out the truth, it might serve as the best medicine for Lingling.

In Shanghai, Lingling had always helped him without asking for anything in return. Mo Fan believed that this was the only thing he could do for her.

It was a coincidence that he had discovered the information about the special dark red soul mark. As such, he wanted to find out the truth, just so he could tell Lingling about his discovery.

“It happened like this: Kazuaki and I were the first ones to discover the Essence Orb, and we told Masako and Tegami. Masako suggested we should report it to the clan, but Tegami suggested we should refine the energy in the orb to improve our strength, so we could stand out among the people in the clan. We ended up absorbing the energy in the orb and split it evenly among ourselves. Nothing happened at first, and our cultivation improved significantly. However, Masako, Tegami, and I began to act differently. We were having fun killing demon creatures. Later, we even tortured the prisoners in the East Guardian Tower…” said Mochizuki Ken.

“You have lost your mind to the Essence Orb,” said Mo Fan.

“Yes. It got worse, Tegami suggested that we should imprison more criminals in the East Guardian Tower, so the Essence Orb would be able to absorb more energy from their souls, to provide us with more power,” Mochizuki Ken seemed reluctant to talk about the past.

He had done lots of things that he was utterly regretful of during the time he had lost control of himself. The cruelty and evil kept growing stronger and rooted deep in their hearts…

“How did you break free from its control?” asked Mo Fan.

It was obvious that the old man had become a lot gentler and kinder after the incident.

“It was Kazuaki, he’s the most rational among us. When he realized that the orb was draining the hatred and evil thoughts of the prisoners from their soul, he began to stop us from cultivating with the Essence Orb… (sigh) but we were simply too lost in our greed,” Mochizuki Ken let out a breath full of remorse and sorrow.

“So you killed him?” said Mo Fan.

“Nonsense!” Mochizuki Chihaya glared at Mo Fan.

“As a matter of fact, we did kill him. The three of us decided to murder Kazuaki who tried to stop us…” Mochizuki Ken’s voice was extremely soft. He did not even dare to look into Mochizuki Chihaya’s eyes.

“What… you killed Iwata’s father? Even my mum agreed?!” Mochizuki Chihaya cried out in shock.

Kazuaki and Mochizuki were still husband and wife back then. From what Mochizuki Chihaya could remember, her mother was the kindest woman in the world. There was no way she would do something so wicked and twisted.

Mochizuki Ken knew it was hard for Mochizuki Chihaya to accept the truth, yet he had no choice but to reveal it, “The truth is, she was the one that suggested it… oh, you shouldn’t blame your mother, she was influenced the greatest by the orb, I believe you already know what that feels like.”

Mochizuki Chihaya recalled how she attacked the civilians. She was indeed not herself.

“How terrifying, knowing that the person sleeping beside you is thinking of killing you…” Mo Fan let out a sigh.

“Luckily, Kazuaki was a clever man, and realized what we were up to. We initially thought he would run away, but he didn’t. He stole the Essence Orb and left with that evil thing. We even tried to hunt him down because we thought he was trying to keep the Essence Orb to himself. We were extremely furious, we even pursued him until he had nowhere to run, but somehow, he vanished. Since then, we have never seen Kazuaki again. As time gradually passed, our minds slowly recovered. Your mum Masako felt extremely guilty for what she had done, and ended up passing away at a young age. Tegami and I did not dare to mention the incident again, but we have no idea how we could ever atone for what we had done to Kazuaki,” said Mochizuki Ken.

It had been so many years, the young man had already grown old, yet it felt like everything had only happened the day before. Mochizuki Ken’s eyes were soaked in tears whenever he recalled it.

“So that’s why you’ve always been loving and kind to Iwata?” said Mochizuki Ken.

The old man nodded and said after taking a deep breath, “Yeah, the only thing we can do is take good care of his son. Unfortunately, it took us some time to recover. We vented all our hatred toward Kazuaki on his son. Iwata suffered greatly when he was young, Masako hated him too… when Masako finally realized the sacrifice Kazuaki had made, Iwata had already grown up. He assumed that our love and care were just putting up an act, and he believed he never needed any of it.”

“Iwata…” Mochizuki Chihaya felt a tingling surge in her nose when she imagined what her brother had gone through.

“I’ll try my best to save Iwata from Commander Takagi. We must not let Commander Takagi know about the Essence Orb. Takagi is a greedy man. He has no idea how terrifying the thing is. If the orb falls into his hand, it will be a great disaster,” said Mochizuki Ken.