Chapter 646

This was Hielo, but nothing like the memories Ian had.

The fields where he first rode a carriage to meet Lord Molin, the lake where they once enjoyed boating, the dry hay spread out on the rooftops, the long stone walls stretching beneath the mansion… not a single thing remained intact.

All that was visible was utter devastation.

“Damn it.”

Beric’s pupils trembled violently.

Even when the central army clashed with the Bratz, the damage wasn’t this severe. Debris littered the streets so thickly that the roads were unrecognizable. Could anyone still be alive? They scanned every corner intently, but the only movement was the flickering flames.

“Ian, how… how could this have happened?”

Ian didn’t answer. Instead, he turned toward the mansion, which was also half-ruined, nearly collapsed.

Ian, Beric, and the caravan staff landed in the mansion’s courtyard, nerves on edge. They strained to catch any sign of life.

“Hana! Nersarn!”

Beric cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, but no reply came. Ian’s gaze fell on a crushed arm and leg buried beneath rubble.

“Is there no one here?! Please, answer me! I’m Beric! Ian’s here too!”

The staff member only rolled his eyes in shock, trailing close behind Ian. They didn’t know what dangers might be lurking, so staying near the mage was the safest bet.

“Hana! Anyone! If you’re alive, please respond! We’ll save you!”

Thump.

At that moment, a faint sound reached them. Ian and Beric both turned sharply, while the staff member just whipped his head around, flinching.

Ian strode toward the noise. A tree, its trunk severed, lay across the lawn. Ian gestured to Beric.

“Beric. Clear this tree.”

“The tree? Ah, right here!”

“Hurry.”

This was the spot where the secret hideout was—where Derg’s wife and son, Mary and Chel, had been hiding. The fallen tree blocked the entrance, making it impossible to open from inside.

Beric lifted the tree lightly, revealing a concealed entrance camouflaged by the grass.

“Ah.”

Peeking out from below, Hana’s first sight was Ian’s feet. Her gaze slowly rose, and soon she met his golden hair, now deepened by the glow of the embers, and his green eyes.

“M-Master.”

Ian Hielo. Before he was the Minister of Magic, he was the lord of Hielo—and more than that, her master. Ian nodded and extended his hand. Hana, as if dreaming, blankly took it and climbed up.

“It’s been a long time, Hana. I’m glad you’re alive.”

“Y-You, Ian…”

Though glad he was alive, Hana was battered—scratched and scorched all over. She muttered, unable to find the right words.

“You… you look remarkably the same as before.”

More than ten years had passed. In that time, Hana had grown into a lady, but Ian looked exactly as she last remembered.

Because Filia, Nersarn, and Roel hadn’t mentioned Ian’s condition, Hana hadn’t expected her master’s appearance to be unchanged.

“I thought you’d be taller. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have eaten so much of your food back then…”

“Hana, don’t I look different?”

“Gasp. Beric, how did you grow so much? You’ve become like a wild beast.”

Standing next to Beric, the difference was even more striking.

Behind the bewildered Hana, unfamiliar faces began to peek out one by one.

“B-Butler, are you alright?”

“Everyone, come up! The master and Beric have returned!”

“Huh? Master? You mean… Count Ian?”

“Everyone, get outside! It’s safe now!”

“Let’s bring the children up first. Help them from above!”

“Understood! Beric, lend a hand here!”

Putting aside her greetings, Hana helped the others who had been hiding to climb out. Except for the mansion’s servants and a few nearby villagers, they were all children.

“W-Where are Mom and Dad?”

“Shh. Don’t cry. We’ll find them. They should be nearby.”

The children, faces streaked with tears and snot, looked around the ruined Hielo with fearful eyes. Instinctively, they knew their parents couldn’t have survived in a place like this.

“What happened, Hana?”

Ian showed the letter Lady Lien had sent.

“It says Father left the territory. Did he head to the capital?”

“Ah…”

The brief letter inquired about Clark and the situation with Nersarn. It seemed they couldn’t wait and sent it as soon as they returned to Merelrop. How it reached Ian within hours was a mystery.

“Filia couldn’t get in touch, so Nersarn tried to go to the capital. But that’s not true. Lady Lien came recently and said many from the caravan had fled here. The situation is unstable.”

Hana calmly explained how Nersarn had left with the falcon, how the falcon returned alone, and how her husband Mui had gone out with soldiers to scout the desert.

“Mui came back quickly. Then he told everyone to hide—said a mage was coming…”

“A mage?”

“I also heard that Kakan… was killed.”

“…!”

Kakan’s death was shocking enough, but what it implied was even more so. It meant Chonryeo had been ambushed. Hana ran her hand through her hair and sank down.

“I don’t know. I really don’t understand what’s going on. Ha… Anyway, following Mui’s message, all the soldiers in Hielo gathered and armed themselves with Idgallo weapons to defend the mansion.”

Hana protected the children flooding into the mansion, and the villagers gradually took up arms. The soldiers guarded the territory, but they themselves had to protect their home.

“But it was a mistake.”

Hana sighed deeply, pulling a nearby child close. Her breath was heavy with self-reproach, lament, and sorrow.

“We shouldn’t have fought. We should have evacuated as many as possible to the underground space and fled toward the capital.”

One mage.

No matter how godlike they were, there was only one. And they had Idgallo weapons. Their arrogance in thinking they could stand against that brought this outcome.

“I’ve never seen the sea in my life, but I think I understand it now. Flames rising everywhere, swirling around. The world shaking…”

From the hill where the mansion stood, she had watched it all—the way human skin melted, solid buildings crumbled, and the chilling screams of the terrified.

As Hana caught her breath, one of the survivors suddenly grabbed Ian’s arm. A middle-aged man, his tear-streaked face darkened.

“L-Lord Count, what on earth happened…?”

“Hey! That’s disrespectful.”

“I don’t understand why the mage attacked us. Ian, you’re a mage, so you must know. Why? Why did my children have to die?!”

“You crazy bastard, how dare you say that to Ian?”

Hana and Beric tried to restrain the man, but a parent who’d lost their child saw nothing else.

“You haven’t set foot in the territory for ten years, and now you come back? If you’d handled things in the capital, this wouldn’t have happened! When the lord is absent, only the lowly die!”

He wailed that if Ian had stayed in Hielo, he could have stopped this. Beric opened his mouth to reply, but Ian motioned him to hold back.

He wasn’t wrong. To keep Naum’s final words and return to his own timeline, Ian had to accept the sacrifice of a vacant lordship in Hielo. With Hana and Chonryeo’s help, the territory was barely governed—but it was a kind of peace built on deception.

“Ugh…”

The man collapsed, sobbing, and Ian read the survivors’ gazes. Though unspoken, most shared the same thoughts.

At that moment, Hana approached with a stern expression and stepped in front of Ian.

“No, Ian. Everyone’s just shaken right now. Don’t take it to heart.”

In peaceful times, Ian’s absence had its benefits. Taxes were low, tales of the lord’s tyranny were distant, and people felt they reaped what they sowed.

Ian couldn’t respond. All he could do now was ask questions.

“…Where is the mage? Has anyone seen them?”

“As soon as the heat storm hit the mansion, I went down and sealed the entrance tightly. I don’t know if they died or flew off somewhere… Maybe they headed to Merelrop…”

“But Ian, Merelrop was relatively intact compared to us. Though it was empty. Maybe they didn’t go there at all?”

Merelrop might have evacuated safely after hearing about the Hielo incident. For example, the Valijuard who moves through paintings hadn’t vanished without a trace, had he?

The caravan staff member listening nearby cautiously added,

“That’s possible. Bringing a painting into another painting breaks the established path, so it’s avoided unless urgent.”

If the mage didn’t go to Merelrop, could they have gone deep into the capital?

Ian shook his head. That seemed unlikely. The mage was surely from Luswena. If so, to help their ally Hwan, neutralizing Merelrop would be essential.

“But that didn’t happen. Maybe after facing Cheonryeo, his magic was drained? If that were the case, he would have wiped out Hielo, so it would make sense for him to be recovering here. He wouldn’t have expected me to come.”

Neither Merelrof, nor the central forces, nor any rest point—it was none of those. Whatever the circumstances, it was clear that the Luswena mage had returned.

Perhaps he had been wounded by the Idgal soldiers of Hielo and had gone back to recover. But if not…

“He’s someone with a remarkably deep well of magic.”

Ian clicked his pocket watch and checked the time. Less than an hour had passed since he received the letter and arrived here.

To have destroyed all of Hielo in such a short time—he was no ordinary mage.

“Or he might have used an amplifier…”

…or perhaps he wielded forbidden magic.

Ian slipped the watch back into his pocket and looked around at the others.

“You all need to leave Hielo and seek refuge in a nearby territory. Anywhere will do. I’ll provide you with sealed documents—explain the situation to the local lord. If you encounter Merelrof along the way, then your priority should be to search for survivors. Don’t try to find my father or Hana’s husband right now. Just get yourselves to safety.”

“…W-what do you mean?”

“Hielo can’t be rebuilt anytime soon.”

Even if they took their time to restore it later, who knew how long it would take? There was no solution for Hielo at the moment. And above all, it was dangerous.

“This is the path Luswena has paved. They will come crashing down here sooner or later.”

“Then, what are we supposed to do?”

“Just stay alive.”

Ian took off his Minister of Magic badge and handed it to Hana.

“As long as you live, we’ll meet again someday. I know that. So you must survive until the end.”

“Ian…”

“…The burden of the dead falls on me.”

He muttered the vow as if promising it to everyone present.

Like the words of the middle-aged man who had cried out before, he was the master of everything here—the Hielo manor, the fields, the trees, the people, and the future.

“Beric. We’re going after him.”

“Where to?”

Ian tightened his robe and stepped out of the manor.

“Luswena.”