Surviving The Fourth Calamity

2: Chapter 2: I Don’t Want to Be a Magician 2: Chapter 2: I Don’t Want to Be a Magician At the entrance to the castle, Hill’s personal servant, Boen, was waiting with the carriage.

Seeing Hill emerge, Boen said with a smile, “Lord Baron!

Everything is packed!

Let’s hurry on our way!”

Boen’s parents had both been servants who followed Hill’s mother.

Hill couldn’t possibly leave them behind in the earldom where there was a great deal of dissatisfaction with Melanie.

Moreover, he suspected that his maternal grandfather must have become a Magister by now, a fact that would suffice to make the Count, who was a Grand Knight, bow his head in deference.

But Fran had given him a large sum of money without appearing before the Earl, making Hill acutely aware of Fran’s disdain and hatred for the Earl.

It was best for Hill to keep far away from the Earl’s domain and not leave anyone behind.

He climbed into the carriage and said softly, “Let’s go.”

The carriage then set off briskly.

Boen’s parents, Locke and Lina, with two children, were waiting outside the estate with a cart.

Upon seeing Hill’s carriage, they followed, heading toward the western border.

The Perast Earldom was inland within the Saral Kingdom, not far from the Royal City, wealthy but without a significant military force.

Thus, no one could detect Hill’s identity as a warlock.

It was the Capital that Hill worried about a bit.

But before Melanie’s death, she had told him that he must go to the Royal City and find his maternal grandfather once he was of age.

Hill had initially thought about just taking a look.

However, Fran had suddenly appeared the day before he came of age.

Every year, Melanie’s alchemy products were sent to the Royal City for Fran to sell on her behalf; he knew well that Hill had plenty of wealth at his disposal.

This time, Fran came quietly alone, bringing a large amount of resources and enough magic books for Hill to train himself up to the level of Archmage.

Something must be about to happen in the Royal City, and Fran thought that Hill, being only a mage, might run into trouble if he went there.

Nevertheless, if Hill insisted on going, Fran had no objections.

Hill had to make his own decision, whether to take the risk or to stay under Fran’s protection.

Thus, Fran left without a word, letting Hill consider what kind of future he wanted for himself.

Hill understood that a warlock’s bloodline was free to grow until it became legendary.

At worst, he would not learn spells from other lines.

The magic scrolls left by Melanie were enough for him.

No matter what was about to happen in the Royal City, Fran, as a Magister, wouldn’t have any problems.

On the other hand, if Hill were there, he could likely be used to bring Fran down.

Hill had no interest in being a hostage.

It was better to hurry to the border and leave the country to pioneer!

The Pioneering Decree he held was quite good.

The Pioneering Decree was a document of agreement witnessed by the God of Justice among all the nations of the continent.

All deities recognized it; it was only issued by the Justice Temple.

As long as it was used in the wilderness area, it would automatically back up in the Hall of Justice, and no kingdom could take it back.

This was a territory acknowledged by the gods, and it would automatically appear on the Alchemy Map.

However, if the territory that a lord developed exceeded the range of the Alchemy Map, then it depended on whether the lord could protect these areas.

Only after a long period of occupation would the Alchemy Map recognize it as your land.

Generally speaking, most of these developed territories are destroyed by the Magical Beasts.

Once the core is shattered, the part backed up by the Temple also automatically dissipates.

If you’re lucky, you return to your own country as a landless noble; if not, you’re left to the wilderness.

There are many who have succeeded; the Saral Kingdom was built this way.

But there are even more who have perished.

The wilderness area is boundless.

In the ancient times, deities could fall entering its depths; all the more so now when deities cannot descend to the world.

What Hill is most satisfied with in this world is the complexity of the God System; the racial gods are the mainstream.

There is no unified God System, the wilderness separates all the races far apart, and only the strong can travel across lands.

All races face enemies that emerge from the wilderness—Magical Beasts and devils from the Abyssal Hell.

Humans already have plenty of enemies, and the human kingdoms are all under the eyes of the deities, so all conflicts must remain aboveboard.

The deities themselves can only attract followers and not coerce; non devout followers are common among the strong.

Hill respects the deities; after all, in human history, it was the deities who protected humans from being swallowed by the wilderness.

But as a transmigrator, he couldn’t entrust himself to any one deity.

As a warlock, it is quite normal not to believe in the gods, and no one finds it puzzling.

Some mages may have faith in the God of Knowledge, but all temple missionaries avoid sorcerers.

The chaotic inheritance of warlocks leads many to only manifest their bloodline after becoming legendary, with countless instances of believers betraying their gods once their true nature is revealed, causing even the deities to seethe with frustration.

There once was a devil-blooded sorcerer worshipper of the God of Justice.

Before becoming legendary, his devoutness had won the God of Justice’s admiration.

However, upon reaching legendary status and fully manifesting his bloodline, his life’s pursuit became the exploitation of the loopholes in the God of Justice’s contract.

As a former devout follower, he knew the God of Justice well.

The chaos he created during that period is something the Church of Justice still doesn’t want to talk about to this day.

And although this legendary sorcerer vanished among humans, there were rumors he had gone to the Abyss.

Since then, whether sorcerers believe in the gods has been a matter of personal conviction; they could have faith, but the deities generally wouldn’t provide any feedback.

However, the nobles were very keen on having sorcerer bloodlines appear in their families.

The title of nobility can only be inherited by those of Knight Level or higher.

If the legitimate line loses the title, collateral relatives who become official professionals may also gain the right to inherit.

As for mages, they need talent, tremendous willpower, and wisdom.

Many who can’t even become knights are likely to remain mage apprentices for life.

Therefore, sorcerers who awaken as official mages from the outset are extremely attractive prospects to nobles.

The result has been many young sorcerers being treated as mere studs before they even grow up, and the situation for female sorceresses is even more tragic.

After nearly a hundred years of such tumult, the high-level warlocks had to step forward for the sake of their future.

But the bloodlines of sorcerers are so varied and peculiar, not every legendary warlock capable of organizing an association could guarantee they wouldn’t fight upon meeting.

An individual legendary warlock could only protect those in their immediate vicinity.

In the end, Dilante, the only legendary female sorceress of the time, built a Magic Tower in the wilderness to shelter all the female sorceresses who sought refuge there.

This small domain received the protection of all legendary warlocks, and the nobles understood this was the limit.

The tower survived in the wilderness and, over a thousand years, evolved into the present Kingdom of Female Warlocks, Dilante.

Male sorcerers, on the other hand, were overlooked; they either lived on meekly within the Kingdom of Female Warlocks, being expelled after growing into Archmages, or they found a quiet corner to survive on their own.

In reality, there are few sorcerers who reach Archmage status and still cannot survive independently.

However, there are male sorcerers who do not care about becoming studs, marrying, and having children – such men would never become legendary, so no one cares about them.

Hill had no idea why he had been reborn in this world, but he spent the adjustment period utterly astounded by Melanie’s tempestuous actions right after his birth.

The angry female mage ended a quarrel with the Earl with a Flame Storm, taking Hill and the maid’s family away from the castle immediately.

The female mage’s zest for life seemed to vanish along with her tumultuous love life; she buried herself in the Alchemy Laboratory, not stepping out for months on end.

Thankfully, there was Lina to take care of Hill.

His personal servant, Boen, was already three years old at the time.

Lina had put all her heart into caring for Hill and had no second child.

It wasn’t until Hill returned to the castle that Lina, who had stayed at the estate, gave birth to another set of twins, Dean and Shani.

After Hill turned three, Melanie started teaching him Mage knowledge and literacy.

Those times were truly arduous.

Melanie didn’t care how much he learned; she just kept on teaching.

Fortunately, with his background in civil engineering from his previous life and a memory that never forgot a sight, Hill knew his destiny was unpredictable.

No matter how dry the material was, he persisted.

Melanie only taught him for two years.

Once she saw he had learned the magic runes and mathematics, she went back to her alchemy, and Hill had to study on his own.

If it weren’t for his memories from his past life, he definitely wouldn’t have been able to carry on.

Whenever he felt utterly frustrated and powerless, Hill would drag Boen into studying with him.

Boen was a butler designated to serve Hill, required to learn a lot of skills from his parents, and also dragged into learning Mage knowledge by his young master.

It was really tough for him.

But for a servant like Boen, even the slightest awakening of mana could mean that his descendants might become Mages, so he could only grit his teeth and persevere.

Boen’s perseverance spurred Hill on: Nobody wanted to remain at the bottom.

His destiny was already quite favorable.

Each day, after meditating to his limit, he would read and memorize books, and then he used teaching Boen as a method to organize thoughts.

Hill’s knowledge of spells was systematically sorted from simple to complex.

When Melanie became injured and bedridden, and started teaching Hill, she found that her son seemed to have a lot of talent.

Only then did she begin to invest her passion in him.

That feeling of relief of having someone to carry on one’s legacy was actually quite hurtful.

Luckily, he had memories from birth and never expected much from these two.

If he had been a normal child, he would have been destroyed by such parents long ago.

Hill’s parents from his previous life had given him a great deal of love.

Since Melanie was very young, only 16 when she gave birth to him, Hill never saw her as a mother, didn’t need to seek maternal love from her, and was thus much more tolerant towards her.

After all, compared to that Earl father, Melanie was much better.

Moreover, as an alchemist, Melanie was truly wealthy.

The only way she could express her love for her son was by bestowing her wealth upon him, and Hill had four storage rings because of this.

A year ago, Boen had awakened his mana and become a Mage Apprentice.

Although he could only conjure a small spark, Hill had Boen use this year to slowly accumulate supplies.

Although he anticipated probably having to rely on Fran in the Capital for a while, the habit of a civil engineer to prepare for any eventuality proved to be a great help.

Now, they only needed to purchase some specialties along the way; everything else had been prepared.

In the Saral Kingdom, it was a given to grant a Pioneering Decree to the landless Baron sons of cadet branches, and nobody would refuse.

After all, you might not seek adventure, but your offspring might need it.

However, there were differences in the Pioneering Decrees, and as a father, the Earl still gave Hill the best kind: Hill could have an Earldom-sized territory.

There were some benefits to the four years spent at Perast Castle as well.

Hill had read all the books in the entire castle.

And in the Earl’s private study, there were many ancestor’s notes that only the legitimate line was permitted to read.

While Hill was reading these ancestor’s notes, he always thought the Earl would stop him, but even Manton never came.

If knowledge is wealth, then it’s probably long forgotten by these people.

As the beneficiary, Hill could only silently make a fortune.