Chapter 252: Vedrasha (Two)

During Vedrasha’s apprenticeship, having his Battle Aura cultivation cut short and being forced to focus solely on magic was only one of the two great regrets in his life. His other major regret also occurred during his naive apprentice years.

That was… his first heartbreak!

Not yet twenty-five, Vedrasha was just a reckless young man. His mage talent was considered average at best in a spellcaster academy filled with geniuses. Adolescent impulses dominated his thoughts, and with a Formal-Level Mage grandfather as his backing, Vedrasha showed no diligence during this period. His so-called studies were merely poor attempts at going through the motions.

Until the second major incident occurred, this future Grand Arcanist’s focus remained entirely on parties, drinking, and chasing women.

This self-indulgent lifestyle continued until Vedrasha turned twenty, when he returned home during his seventh academic year.

Upon returning home, while still preoccupied with how to deal with his grandfather, Vedrasha received shocking news – Katie, the young maid he adored, had married someone else!

But that wasn’t the worst part. What devastated Vedrasha most was that Katie had genuinely found love and married happily of her own volition. There was no coercion or reluctance, nor any melodramatic scenario of a wealthy young master forcibly taking a common girl. Katie had wholeheartedly chosen to love and marry a young commoner who ran a brewery.

In truth, while Vedrasha adored Katie who had grown up with him, Katie didn’t share feelings for her childish young master. This world wasn’t some web novel – maids typically felt fear rather than affection for their masters. Moreover, Katie knew she could never become Vedrasha’s partner. She was just an ordinary person with a mere century of lifespan, while Vedrasha’s life would span far longer.

So after Vedrasha left, Katie naturally requested Zakath to terminate the ten-year contract signed years earlier.

The emotionally clueless old patriarch was only too happy to comply. He knew about his grandson’s affection for this ordinary maid (discerned through mind magic – he wouldn’t have guessed otherwise). The old patriarch wouldn’t allow a worthless woman to hinder his grandson’s life, and had been considering “sending her back to her hometown” if Katie dared to overstay. When Katie came to resign voluntarily, the old patriarch gladly agreed.

“This will make my grandson give up his feelings without resenting me. How clever of me.”

Vedrasha was absolutely certain that’s exactly what the old patriarch thought at the time.

Returning home full of excitement, the first news Vedrasha heard was that his grandfather, in his misguided wisdom, had let the woman he considered his run off with someone else. The hot-blooded young Vedrasha couldn’t bear this humiliation.

Though he usually showed some respect toward his slightly willful young maid, he probably never realized how strong his possessiveness truly was. Already forced by his grandfather’s command to permanently abandon Battle Aura cultivation, Vedrasha completely erupted.For the first time, he truly devoted himself to studying a spell—an apprentice-rank divination spell. Then, on Katie’s birthday night, the young Vedrasha drank himself into a stupor. Staff in hand, he went straight to Katie, who was happily celebrating her birthday with her husband in a small brewery.

On that torrential rain-filled night, the drunken Vedrasha ignored Katie’s tearful pleas and burned her husband to ashes bit by bit right before her eyes. The hatred in his heart was utterly uncontrollable; the more Katie begged, the angrier Vedrasha became, because he knew he had forever lost Katie’s heart.

The next day, after sobering up, Vedrasha did not await the return of his beloved girl’s affection. Instead, he received only his grandfather’s confinement order and… the news of Katie’s suicide…

As the heir of a magical family, Vedrasha only needed to pay a hundred gold coins to settle the matter of killing a commoner. But Vedrasha could never forgive himself for the mistake he had made. Even ten thousand years later, as a Grand Arcanist, he would still feel sorrow and guilt whenever he recalled this childhood first love.

This incident completely changed the usually carefree rich young master. To forget the guilt that could drive any good-aligned mage insane, and to punish himself like an ascetic monk, Vedrasha discarded all forms of entertainment and devoted himself wholeheartedly to the study of magic.

In his crazy learning, Vedrasha displayed his talent. This fellow became more obsessed with magic than the most crazed lich. He stopped eating three meals a day, switching to a weekly dose of high-concentration nutrient solution as his “food.” He advanced all the way to the Master-Level, not leaving his laboratory even once for a full eight hundred years.

Had his family not been unable to provide further resources for his studies, this fellow would undoubtedly have remained in his laboratory until he reached the Legendary level.

This was Vedrasha’s life up until the Master-Level—one could say most of his time was spent learning, learning, and learning some more. As for combat, this Master-Level caster was utterly clueless. He hadn’t made a single friend, and as a Master-Level caster, he had only ever personally killed one living being—a act of slaughter he regretted more than any other. It must be said that Vedrasha was truly an eccentric among masters.

When Vedrasha reached the Master-Level, his family flourished even more. The old clan leader exhausted his lifespan and passed away peacefully after his grandson achieved level seventeen, deeply gratified by his grandson’s accomplishments—even though Vedrasha had refused to attend his send-off, citing busyness with experiments.

By this time, Vedrasha’s period of study came to a temporary halt. The Zakas Family, now without their old leader, wanted Vedrasha to become the next clan head. But this increasingly taciturn and inscrutable caster unhesitatingly refused. He left the laboratory he had inhabited for eight hundred years and resolutely headed for the frontlines of the Netherese Civilization’s battlefields.

The members of the Zakas Family naturally tried their utmost to dissuade him, with a rather reasonable argument—”You’ve never participated in even a single battle; how can you go to the battlefield?”However, Vedrasha turned a deaf ear to the persuasions of those around him. Though he was now the pillar of the Zakas Family and held absolute authority within the clan, in his heart, this family had long become utterly unfamiliar to him.

All those he had known—his parents, elder brother, and grandfather—had passed away after living out their lifespans. The now wealthier Zakas Family had completely renovated the old, small castle. Every tree and blade of grass here felt entirely foreign to Vedrasha, and he recognized none of the servants who bowed respectfully to him.

For some reason, Vedrasha only wished to leave his family at this moment, to go far away and never return. Having just left the Laboratory, he felt no sense of belonging to this place whatsoever.

Thus, the now resolute spellcaster departed. In silence, he enlisted in an ordinary mage legion, embarking on the wartime career of the “Far-Sky Scholar.”

(End of Chapter)