21st Century Archmage

“Sigh. Can’t believe I had the coordinates off by one number. You really have to be careful when it comes to numbers, seriously.”

I was the fool for trusting Master. When I teleported from Master’s magic tower in Iceland to the Kallian Continent, I found myself not on the magic circle within the Nerman Imperial Castle I intended, but somewhere I’d never seen or heard of in my life.

“Where am I?”

The environment didn’t look all that different from the Kallian Continent, but it was a little warmer and the air was very humid. This kind of climate was characteristic of the eastern continent, the home of the legendary Araktch Empire.

Cla-Cla-Clang! SQUEAAAAL!

As I was looking around, I heard the considerably faraway sound of clashing weapons along with the screams of dying orcs.

“A battle?”

There was only one thing I could do in response to the sounds of battle that came drifting along the wind over the completely unfamiliar mountains far in the distance. I knew the coordinates, so I could immediately open a Gateway to Nerman Imperial Castle, but curiosity was bubbling up deep within my heart.

“Fly!”

I lifted into the air and flew towards the place that had drawn my curiosity, coming upon the battle before long. Hundreds of orc warriors were attacking a carriage being protected by two knights and a platoon of soldiers.

“Tsk tsk tsk, what can you hope to do with such skills…”

Nerman’s knights would have been able to wipe out that many orcs with ease, but these knights were far too weak, and the ragged soldiers were of the same feather. They were definitely knights and soldiers belonging to a rural mountain territory.

“Gaahh!”

“G-Guard the carriage!”

Bested in both numbers and morale, the soldiers were falling over one after another. I couldn’t just keep watching.

“Fire Spear!”

Still flying in the sky, I let loose an easily controllable Fire Spear.

Schwiiiiiiiiiiiip. Boom! Boom!

The magic flames blazed fiercely as they crashed into orc hide.

SQUEAAAAAL! SQUEAAAAAAL!

The sudden magic attack quickly turned the squealing orc warriors into roast pigs.

‘Hurry up and go home, piggos.’

I didn’t want to tire myself with battle from my very first day of returning to Kallian, so I urged the orc horde to disperse with a look of annoyance.

“Kugebar!!!”

Shortly afterward, once a good hundred orcs had become magic roast pigs, the orc warriors began to retreat.

“A-A mage has appeared!”

“Ohhh! The gods have not abandoned the Yantre count family!”

The knights and soldiers looked at me, the mage who easily handled the orcs, with the jubilation of supplicants whose prayers had been answered. I had experienced this sort of occurrence time and time again on the Continent, so I was unmoved even in the face of their overwhelming emotion.

‘What kind of count family is this? Even a baronet family would be better than this.’

I wasn’t one to look down on people, but the people of the Yantre count household were obviously poor and poverty-stricken. I landed briefly next to the carriage in order to ask where this was.

‘Some noble will definitely come out of the carriage, thank me for saving their lives, and invite me to the county. Then, they’ll tell me all about the difficult circumstances of the territory and ask me to sweat blood and tears together to restore the county to its former glory.’

Having seen it over and over, I was now familiar to death with the conduct of nobles.

Clunk.

The door of the carriage opened, just as I had expected. From it, appeared a pure white leather shoe and the hem of a blue dress.

‘Eh? A woman?’

A noblewoman showing up was a hundred times better than a man, at least. I closed my mouth before I could ask one of the knights where exactly this was.

Bzzzzt.

A current born of instinct ran down my spine, telling me that this was no ordinary event.

“Which esteemed mage has saved us undeserving souls—”

Her voice was like morning dew sliding down lush green leaves, the beautiful trill of a mountain bird of unknown name singing to a lone wanderer. The woman’s dulcet tones enchanted me, the listener.

“Ah!” cried the woman upon seeing me. 

“Ah…” came a matching cry from my lips.

‘Sh-She’s incredible!’

Didn’t someone once say that the world was wide and full of beauties? The woman before me could go toe to toe with Aramis, Igis, Rosiathe, and all the others. At 168 cm tall, her simple blue dress matched her lily-white skin all too well, and her clear blue eyes that seemed to hold the sky in them pulled me in, urging me to dive inside and go for a swim.

‘I want to protect her. Even if it means my death…’

My heart was seized by a certain desire. Her look of loneliness and sadness instantly misled me to think that I needed to protect her, no matter what it took.

“Thank you for saving our lives. I am Countess Claria de Yantre of the Doveth Kingdom. I wish to once again offer my great gratitude to our savior.”

Neatly holding down the hem of her dress with her right hand, Countess Claria bowed her head.

‘Ngh, such a beautiful lady lived all this time with knights like these as her retinue?’

Rage flared within me. How could the gods bear to throw beauties like her into the jaws of crisis? And then, when such world-class beauties died unnatural deaths, the gods of fate defended themselves with excuses like ‘beauty is short-lived’. I could never let that happen, not on my watch.

“No, my lady. I merely did something any mage who knows the warm justice of mana must do as a matter of course. Please, think nothing of it.”

My imperial manners were polished to a glossy shine. I offered the Countess my greatest manners with none of a mage’s usual discourtesy.

“I see you are a mage of great enlightenment. If it pleases you, and if you can spare the time, I would gladly welcome you to my humble castle…”

As expected, the beautiful countess invited me to her home. I hesitated for a moment, but that lasted all of 0.5 seconds.

“It would be my honor. My name is Kyron. Please, just call me Ron.”

The lies spilled out of me with unbelievable ease.

‘Huhu, I never promised anyone that I would return at a set time. And if I were to abandon a beautiful countess saddled with such a struggling territory… the heavens would never forgive me.’

Even as I thought that, I looked everywhere but up. The gods in the heavens could surely see straight through my pitch-black heart. I had zero desire to invite hatred and get hit by a lightning bolt.

‘Kya, how nice~! This clean air, stretching out for miles. I must be a male lion on rolling meadows(?) blessed by good waters to play in after all.’

Claria’s face reddened as she looked at me, and I, of course, met her eyes with the smile of a dashing man.

And so, the Goddess of Destiny, Pallan, chose to play with me. Rather than play emperor with a 21st century archmage, she wanted to dream freely with me.

I did not reject her. I, a male lion who lived and breathed freedom, would never let prey I marked slip away.

Not until the day I give up on my sky-high dreams.

21st Century Archmage SERIES END

Translator’s Note: And so, a 7 year journey comes to an end. I started this as a teaser back when I was in university and somehow ended up picking it up again many years later. It has been a pleasure to translate this series and I am so glad we could see it through to the end. Huge thanks to my proofreader Imagine for accompanying me on this wild ride and to Reaper Scans for taking in me and 21st.

If you liked 21st Century Archmage and are looking for a new novel, check out my other project, Max Talent Player! It’s very different, but I think it’s an enjoyable story.

Proofreader’s Note: What a journey hahaha! I’m not going to lie to you, I did not think I would be finishing this series in its entirety, but here we are xD I just want to thank Lei (The TL) for being a great translator and an even better friend! Would not have been able to finish this journey without her! I would also like to thank you guys, for reading this novel! I know some parts of it may have been questionable or corny, but I’m glad that you, the person reading this right now, stuck through and got to the end along with me and Lei! It’s been a pleasure to have proofread this novel for you all and I hope you enjoyed this journey as much as I did! Once again, thank you, from the bottom of my heart