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Return of The 8th Class Mage (Web Novel) - Chapter 157 The Seventh Artisan (2)
Chapter 157 The Seventh Artisan (2)
This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml
Everyone stared at Ledio after his exclamation. What was he saying about his father?
“What are you talking about? Why am I your…oh? Are you Ledio?”
“Are you really, Father?”
The strange meet between father and son continued as they conversed.
“I’m your father…but, why are you so old? How many years has it been?”
“Um…Twenty six winters passed after your demise.”
“Then, how old are you?”
“I’m thirty-seven.”
“Wow…!”
The situation was becoming weirder, and had Ledio’s supposedly dead father really come back alive? Actually, rather than being revived…
‘Can it be true?’
Ian narrowed his eyes like he had realized something.
“It has been only twenty-six years? Not two hundred and sixty, but twenty-six? Had I worked that hard to sleep for just twenty-six years? Damn.”
The mid-aged man, doused in confusion and agony, sat down on the floor.
“How can this have happened…!”
“What happened? Didn’t you die then? I remember an accident, a huge explosion…”
Ledio seemed to have believed that his father had died in an alchemy accident, and there appeared to be a connection between the explosion that had just occurred now.
“Yes, that was my plan, and I was going to do so…”
The mid-aged man suspected to be Ledio’s father could not speak further in grief. His state seemed to stem from layers of anger that had transformed into sadness.
“Do you…”
Ian’s quiet voice rang the air before the confusion was gone, and he spoke to the mid-aged man, who he had obviously met for the first time.
“Know Knocking Island?”
“What?”
Ian’s question was not off the mark, as the mid-aged man had black hair, pale skin, and enough knowledge to leave behind that alchemy book. His desire for eternal rest and a plan for it were the same as the artisans who had wanted death.
“I heard that eight artisans had lived there, and I now accommodate six of them.”
That mid-aged man had to be an ‘artisan,’ one of Fran’s eight. Ian’s instinct screamed that he was the artisan in the alchemy field.
“You’re housing them? Why?”
“I’m Ian Page.”
“Oh? My name is Baion…did you say Page?”
“Yes. Can you guess the reason why I’m with six artisans now?”
“If your name is that…”
All artisans knew the name Fran Page, and Ledio’s father, Baion, who had suddenly appeared before them, seemed to be the same.
“Then, you know the meaning of waking me up now, right?”
“Of course. I want to clarify that we had not intentionally woken you. We had only been researching about the inner world.”
“Inner world? Spoken like a descendant of Page. You have the same tastes. Are you also interested in fractured time, other dimensions, and similar nonsense?”
“Recently, yes.”
“You’re crazy, just like him.”
Baion spoke, clucking his tongue. He was different from other artisans, as he did not hesitate to degrade Ian or Fran. He seemed to be speaking from an equal or a higher position from Fran.
“Father? Ian? What are you two talking about? You have to explain it to me! What had happened to you, Father? Why does Ian know my father? I’m so confused…”
Ledio spoke with blinking eyes, and he was about to burst from confusion.
“Strictly speaking, I can’t say that we’re acquainted…”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I’m not changing the subject, but I had not expected to meet your father like this.”
Ian was speaking the truth, as he had not expected ‘Baion,’ Ledio’s father and the artisan of alchemy, to suddenly appear in this room.
“Father! Say something! What happened? How can you come back from the dead…?!”
“Listen to what you’re saying! I’m dumbstruck. Shouldn’t you be planning a banquet if your father came back from the dead? Why do you keep only asking why I’m alive?”
“That’s…”
“Children are useless. Well, it’s all my fault for having another after being harassed for all that time. Yes, it is.”
“Father, what I meant was…”
“Silent! So, you got older? You were cute when you were small, but now you’re just a mid-aged man. Is that boy next to you really your son, that is my grandson?”
The alchemist Baion spoke as he pointed at Douglas, who stood next to Ledio. He had a sharp eye, as Ledio and Douglas did not look alike.
“Ah, yes.”
“How about your wife?”
“That’s…”
“You don’t have to say it. You look like a single father.”
“……”
Baion spoke to Ian while shrugging his shoulders at Ledio, who had remained silent like he was thinking of his deceased wife.
“You seem to know my son well, and was that also a coincidence?”
“You might not believe it, but we have known each other for seven years.”
“Hmm…”
Was Baion not satisfied with Ian’s answer? He furrowed his brow while thinking and looked around at the messy lab.
“You seemed to have asked my son to research something relevant to the inner world.”
“As far as I know, Ledio and Douglas are the best alchemists the land. That was why I asked them.”
“What? The best alchemists of the land? They would have been unable to find a clue. The lab tells me that.”
While his words were rough, it was evident that Baion possessed a deep knowledge, since he was able to know what research had been undergone and its results just by looking around.
“Son.”
“Yes?”
“Are you also stuck with those damn Pages? Why are you researching that nonsensical inner world that would be useless to you until you die?”
“……”
“Rot.”
Baion shook his had in sincere lament.
“What more can I hide in this situation? Your father is not dead because I cannot die in the first place. I pretended to die as an experiment. It had been somewhat successful, but I did not expect I would be awoken this early.”
Baion scratched his head, and the conversation was getting even more uncommon as he looked around Ledio’s age on the surface.
“That doesn’t really explain much…”
“Leave it at that, we will speak later. You, what was your name? Ian Page?”
Baion turned to Ian, and Ian replied naturally with composure.
“Yes, that name is mine.”
“Is he dead? No, that thing would not have died. Where is he?”
“Who are you talking about? Other artisans are all nearby…”
“No, no. I meant Fran.”
Ian now was convinced that the alchemist Baion treated Fran as someone below him for unknown reasons. How could he do that when he seemed not all that strong? Ian decided to keep what he knew for now.
“I’m sorry, but I do not know much about his whereabouts, since he has not appeared for a long while.”
“Damn, I thought he had appeared and removed this damn curse. I would never have passed my knowledge if I knew what would happen!”
The relationship between Baion and Fran began to appear from Baion’s impassioned shout, and Baion seemed to be Fran’s teacher in alchemy.
“Do you mean that Fran learned alchemy from you?”
“Why? Do you think that I’m lying?”
“Of course not. However, I had witnessed the level of Fran Page’s alchemy, and it was impressive.”
“Level? I had taught him a few things because he begged me to, and what are you talking about levels?!”
“If you say that, then…”
Ian carefully chose his words. He asked Baion about that potion that would let him enter the inner world, which Fran Page had given Ian, and which Ledio and Douglas could not understand.
“That? That wasn’t much.”
Baion answered with scratching his nostril, and his voice was full of firm confidence that had substance. He was not showing off.
“Why, do you need one?”
Ian felt excitement at Baion’s question. The alchemist’s sudden appearance was a variant that could overturn the situation in Ian’s favor.
‘Even Fran Page would not have expected this.”
How could he know that Baion had sealed himself in his own book?
‘This is a chance.’
A variant meant opportunity, and Ian would not let go of this chance. He quickly went on speaking.
“I need one.”
“For free?”
“The inner world is the key.”
“The key? What in the world are you talking about?”
“The blessing of immortality, or the curse of the undead.”
Baion flinched in Ian’s quiet murmur, as Ian had mentioned in detail what had tormented Baion for all this time.
“The inner world is the key to solve this stigma.”
“You’re saying that the inner world is the key to solve this curse?”
“To my understanding, yes.”
“Then, I should give you one.”
Baion’s decision and the reply was almost instant, and it seemed not from a yearning for death. He sounded like such a simple affair did not need negotiations.
“Let’s go to the island.”
Now was the time for one of the two masterpieces in the Knocking Island, the one made by the alchemist Baion, to show itself.
***
Ian and Baion went to the Knocking Island through a portal, and Ledio, Douglas, and Evantus also followed them.
“It has been a long while.”
Baion sounded like he would make a good match for the blacksmith Halia, and he briskly walked up to one of the two ‘dragons,’ the statues that stored the masterpieces, which had not been activated yet.
“Here, take this.”
Baion poured mana in the statue, and the dragon’s mouth opened wide. Simultaneously, a thick book dropped down, and it did not look much different from the ‘alchemy book’ Ledio had.
“Everything I know is in there. I won’t move a muscle for herbs and ingredients and use my son to make the potion. My grandson is also a candidate. You say that he’s the smarter one, even though they look the same to me.”
The book would be the masterpiece, and Baion had thrown it at them. However, the book looked exactly like Ledio’s.
“Isn’t this…the book you gave me? The symbol on the front cover…”
“The book I gave you was for beginners.”
Baion was saying that the vast and deep knowledge in Ledio’s book had only been for beginners.
“I’m saying this book is filled with possibilities that would make a third-rate alchemist to the lord of all alchemists in the land.”
