Twisted Destiny

Did he notice the look in my eyes?

The illusionist, realizing his words could be misunderstood, waved his hands.

“Ah, of course, I didn’t mean to insult you. I only said that because, in all the ‘century’ I’ve lived, your destiny is tangled more complexly than any other.”

“….”

“Destiny is like a spool of thread. When the thread gets tangled, it becomes hard to untangle, and sometimes it’s better to just cut it off entirely.

A destiny that’s too tangled becomes equally complicated. That’s why I said that to you. I apologize if it offended you.”

‘Did he realize I’m a transmigrator?’

Fortunately.

It didn’t seem like he had uncovered my true identity.

The eyes looking at me held a clear sense of ‘apology’.

And I couldn’t sense any deceit in his voice.

‘The Illusionist of the Century….’

But apart from that, I realized I hadn’t properly grasped his character.

Understanding him properly was the priority.

If so.

“…Are you saying. You looked into my destiny without my permission?”

Conversation first.

Clank!

The chain in my hand let out a fierce sound.

Speaking in ‘Raon’s’ conversational style, he looked flustered for a moment and hastily held out both hands.

“I didn’t look without permission! It’s just….”

“Just?”

“By coming in here, you already gave your consent, so…”

“What kind of bullshit is that?”

“If you look at the corner of the tent….”

Saying that, he pointed to the corner of the tent, looking genuinely wronged.

I checked the letters written in the corner of the tent.

[Upon entering, you are considered to have consented to having your destiny read.]

“….”

Is he crazy?

Clank!

“Wait, wait!”

As my chain let out a menacing sound again, he freaked out and waved his hands.

When I tilted my head, gesturing for him to speak.

He spoke as if he had no other choice.

“Normally! I wouldn’t tell you, but I’ll make an exception and tell you what I saw of your destiny.”

“My destiny?”

“Yes, yes. This should appease your anger a bit, right?”

“Is that all?”

As I cracked my neck menacingly, Abella restrained me from the side.

“Young Master… you shouldn’t cause trouble….”

‘Is this all I can wring out of him?’

I was planning to wring out a mana-absorbing artifact or something similar.

Clicking my tongue inwardly, I lowered the chain as if calming my resentment.

Seeing a hope for survival (?), the illusionist hastily opened his mouth.

“Your destiny is… well, how should I put it. It feels like an ordinary balloon completely filled with water?”

“…?”

“Thanks to the special properties of the water, the balloon became sturdier than before, but um… how should I say it….”

After pausing to choose his words, he seemed to find the right ones.

He smacked his fist against his palm and said.

“It’s more accurate to say that a balloon, which should have been ordinary, was made slightly sturdier, and then water was forcefully blown into it.”

“….”

I immediately understood what he meant.

‘Is he saying someone deliberately put mana into me?’

I don’t know what the standard for average is.

But I understood that my body wasn’t supposed to be like this originally.

‘…I didn’t know this information in the game.’

I knew many things would change.

But I didn’t expect to obtain this kind of information so soon.

‘Some entity made Raon’s body like this.’

What exactly is that entity?

‘The developers?’

Then what is the existence of the developers in this world?

‘…A god?’

I fell deep into thought for a moment.

As if expecting me to get lost in thought, the illusionist waited for me for a bit.

Thanks to that, I was able to organize my thoughts.

‘…First, the next question.’

“What about the missing parts?”

“Well, you could say that’s a side effect of the forceful injection…. The inside filled up excessively, and because of that?”

Pop, the illusionist made a small sound with his mouth.

“Everything inside was crushed.”

“….”

Abella covered her mouth with a pale face.

As one of the few people who knew my condition.

She realized what the illusionist was talking about.

“Normally, no matter how immense the amount is, it doesn’t end up like this. Not like your physical body. To withstand the vast mana, it chooses to grow, gradually becoming sturdier to bear it. Just like the hearts of countless strong individuals. However.”

The illusionist tapped his chest lightly.

“Because you didn’t grow on your own, but had someone else forcefully blow mana into you, your body couldn’t keep up. Thanks to that, your core and everything else ended up completely ruined.”

It was indeed something unimaginable among mages.

That’s why my siblings still didn’t know my core was completely crippled.

Probably the only ones who knew were my father or my mother, who was currently secluded in a tower.

‘…Then, the fact that my control is increasing means.’

The core, the lifeblood and heart of a mage, is gradually recovering.

If you operate mana with low stats, the fragile core shatters.

If you occasionally succeed by sheer luck.

It would literally be just ‘luck’. A miracle where the mana didn’t run wild but operated calmly, leaving the core intact.

“You can just consider this a curse. They say too much of anything is poison, right? That mana you possess has become a poison.”

“….”

“Honestly, it’s a miracle you’ve held out this long. Looking at it, that chain, that strange ring, and that belt—they’re the only things keeping you alive.”

“….”

Abella kept glancing at me.

Clearly walking on eggshells around me.

Without giving her a single glance, I asked.

“Is there a way to fix it?”

“That’s….”

Just as the illusionist was about to speak.

Screech!

Piusuel stood up from his seat, cutting off our conversation.

With a stern expression, Piusuel said.

“That’s enough talking.”

“Haha. I suppose we did chatter quite a bit.”

“It’s not right to tell a full-grown adult too many things, as if he were a child.”

Piusuel and I made eye contact.

Indeed.

It was a different look from what I saw in the game.

In the game, even if he was fierce, it was only at a level you could feel from an illustration.

‘This isn’t good.’

Right now, I could feel blatant hostility.

“You are of the Rigbelto bloodline.”

“….”

‘They said he got fleeced out of his money gambling with the previous Patriarch of the Rigbelto family.’

Of course, he had so much money he could throw it away, and he had a cool personality that wouldn’t mind such a thing.

But afterwards, the Patriarch made remarks insulting his god.

So fundamentally, he didn’t view the Rigbelto bloodline favorably.

“The Rigbelto family. A very dirty and foul family. Fleecing an old man out of his money so cheaply.”

…It’s definitely because he insulted his god, right?

“So. What is your reason for following this old man?”

“….”

“It seems the current Patriarch’s hobby is stalking instead of scamming.”

“…?”

“I heard he was strong. To think he can’t even properly control his mana, and his core is ruined. It seems the reputation I heard was just an illusion.”

“…???”

I couldn’t hide my dumbfounded expression.

…What kind of bullshit is this all of a sudden?

‘Is he mistaking me for the Patriarch right now?’

The way he’s talking, that’s exactly it.

‘Where the hell did he get that idea??’

Abella, beside me, also couldn’t hide her bewildered expression.

The same went for the Illusionist of the Century.

Seeing our expressions, perhaps Piusuel also felt something was wrong.

Thud, thud!

He strode over to me and pinched my cheek.

“…It’s not Polymorph?”

“No, sir. If you mistake that….”

The Illusionist of the Century spoke in a bewildered tone.

Piusuel, who had been stretching my cheeks this way and that to closely inspect my face, also looked flustered.

“You look exactly the same, though?”

“But he’s shorter.”

“I just thought he shrunk himself. Then the mana….”

“Did you not hear what I just said? This is the boy’s mana. Though it is a bit twisted.”

“Even so, to have mana that could make me mistake him….”

Tap!

Releasing my cheeks, Piusuel scrutinized my face as if he couldn’t believe it.

“The fierce eyes are the same. That weird hairstyle is similar too. He is… a bit short. But otherwise, there’s no difference?”

“Isn’t it obvious to anyone that they’re different people?”

“I told you I thought he hid it with Polymorph.”

‘Has he seen the Patriarch?’

Piusuel spoke as if he had seen the current Patriarch.

I had never heard such information in the game.

But the Patriarch looks like me?

‘If anything, he should look like the eldest.’

I remember Raon not looking like him at all.

While the Patriarch had a masculine, thick-lined appearance.

Raon fell into the relatively thin-lined and delicate category.

“Anyway. Sir. This boy is merely of the Rigbelto bloodline. He is not the Patriarch.”

The Illusionist of the Century affirmed.

“……”

“….”

“….”

An awkward silence lingered for a moment.

Piusuel, realizing his mistake, kept his mouth shut.

Abella checked on me, watching my mood to see if I was offended.

As for me.

‘…This guy hasn’t changed.’

I was just relieved that only the Illusionist of the Century was different.

“Ahem!”

Piusuel let out a loud fake cough to change the mood.

“How was my joke. Funny, right?”

‘It wasn’t funny at all.’

But since we weren’t close yet, it felt a bit much to say that to his face.

“…Yeah.”

Even if you’re mistaken, how could you mistake me for the Patriarch?

We look completely different.

I had those doubts, but.

‘Well, I’ll find out eventually.’

Right now, other things were more important.

“So.”

I opened my mouth.

“Why are the two of you here?”

“You disrespectful brat, speaking informally where….”

“Whoa, whoa. Please calm down, sir. Let’s be a little generous with him.”

Piusuel flared up, but the illusionist calmed him down.

Then he looked at me and said.

“It seems you know our identities?”

“A little.”

“I suppose. Not just anyone can see my tent… perhaps this too was destiny.”

He didn’t ask how I knew about this information.

‘Conversations are really easy in this regard.’

Actually, if you have a lot of interest in classics and history, you can obtain information about them to some extent.

You couldn’t be as certain as me, but.

Beings that foresee disasters… there were quite a few who knew them like this.

“A week from now.”

The illusionist held up seven fingers across both hands.

“A dungeon will appear in this territory. A high-level dungeon, with distorted space and time.”

‘As expected.’

“And probably….”

The illusionist spoke with serious eyes.

“The dead will come.”

“!”

My eyes widened.

***

The types of the dead are diverse.

The ‘ghosts’ we usually know.

And the regular customers you’d be sad to miss in a fantasy setting: beings like zombies, ghouls, and skeletons.

‘Surprisingly, ghosts appear quite often.’

Perhaps because they were the most popular in Korea.

With the setting that a high-level dungeon has distorted space and time.

Ghosts based in Korea on Earth also appeared quite frequently.

Actually, regardless of that, the method to clear them was the same.

Individual entities aren’t that strong.

But their style is to overwhelm you with numbers.

Because there are so many of them, they’re tricky to deal with unless you have the power to sweep them away all at once.

That’s why they were monsters that most players found annoying to deal with.

However.

I preferred the undead.

‘They’re so easy to deal with.’

The undead are not beings with a life force other than mana, like humans.

They are unclean beings attached to the world purely through ‘mana’.

In other words. If you eliminate the mana, you can eliminate the undead.

‘In that regard, I’m the perfect fit.’

This.

Might actually be a piece of cake?