Chapter 176: Fragments of Fate
But what would the complete circle look like?
How vast, how powerful could it be in its full form?
Staring at the wall covered in symbols, Aaron had trembled with excitement, his body shaking uncontrollably.
He had given the church an enormous amount of Or, paying a heavy price, and in return he had managed to secure permission to have the entire wall with the carved magic circle carefully removed and sent back to Rosaria.
Cultural property destruction, they said?
Nonsense.
Aaron always told himself there was no problem, because once everything was copied properly, he would return it in good condition.
When he even promised to repair the damaged areas, they had been delighted instead of angry.
With this, it was confirmed beyond doubt that fragments of ancient magic circles existed in many places.
Aaron did not stop with the churches of Dalmasca.
He began a large-scale project to collect them across borders, all over the world.
As for money, he had no problem; he simply drew funds from his family estate.
As a result, in addition to the fragments he had already gathered, more and more pieces began arriving.
The churches he had contacted, fellow magicians and merchants he had paid were all sending in their finds.
Since the number of fragments grew so large, he rented an old building on the outskirts of Rosaria.
There, depending on the condition, patterns were copied onto stone plates to restore them, or replicas and fragments were combined into larger reconstructions.
The building had once probably been a noble’s mansion.
The gates and walls were crumbling, half-buried in overgrown weeds, but the thick pillars supporting the walls and roof still held strong.
Inside, in the wide entrance hall, he spread everything across the floor.
That was where the restoration work was carried out, with the help of his apprentices, craftsmen and artisans skilled in engraving and fine detail.
Fragments were arriving from far away—some from the Kingdom of Nabradia, others from the Kingdom of Arcadia in the southwest.
Because of this, the number of pieces in his possession kept increasing and the work was steadily growing into something huge.
When the fragments were assembled and laid out, they still amounted to only about half of the whole, but even so, it was already clear that the completed magic circle would be enormous.
The hall where the work was being done must once have been used for grand balls, judging by its size, yet now the fragments threatened to cover the entire floor from wall to wall.
For the missing portions, Aaron and his team filled the gaps by carefully deducing from the surrounding fragments, ancient patterns and old characters.
Even though many spaces still remained empty, the act of slowly piecing together what had once been scattered into fragments, restoring it into a proper form, filled him with a joy that was impossible to describe.
This great construction seemed to be made up of several different magic circles.
Most likely, that guy Roaille had managed to restore only one of them.
Of course, Aaron had no intention of carelessly trying to activate this thing.
Just one of its pieces had already caused something terrifying enough.
If the whole thing were ever triggered, it might very well bring the end of the world.
That was no joke.
But still—when scattered parts were lying around, wasn’t it natural to feel the urge to piece them back together?
Who had broken it apart in the first place, and why?
Why had those fragments ended up buried in sand, hidden deep in forests, and scattered across so many ruins?
And what exactly were those ruins to begin with?
Some said they were remnants of churchs or homes from the age of the gods, a time so long ago that no records remained.
But there was no proof of such claims.
The only evidence was that the stones were clearly arranged by human hands and that strange letters and patterns what scholars called ancient script were carved into them here and there.
For centuries, researchers had studied these ruins, and yet their true nature was still unknown.
Were the scattered fragments left in the ruins by accident, or on purpose?
If on purpose, then what was the goal behind it?
Was it meant to hide something, to protect something, or to prepare for something?
The questions never ended.
And yet, Aaron had the strong feeling that once the fragments were fully reassembled, those mysteries would finally begin to unravel.
He stood in the middle of the great hall, watching as everyone continued their work.
Piece by piece, the fragments were being restored into larger and larger forms.
He looked on with deep satisfaction as the design steadily grew.
The revolution of the magic stones, and now this mysterious fragmentary diagram—Aaron’s excitement could no longer be stopped.
...
Lately, Camilla had found life terribly boring.
The talk of her engagement with Lord Dominic had not advanced at all since that first discussion.
No matter how many times she asked her father, mother, or elder brother, even when she pressed them for a clear answer, they only gave vague words and avoided the truth.
Perhaps, because Lord Dominic had left the mansion, even Lord Gabrant could no longer push the matter forward so strongly.
No one would say it aloud in front of her, out of concern for her feelings, but was it possible that things were already moving toward breaking off the match?
She hated the thought.
Was she truly expected to give up on Lord Dominic now, after all this time?
He was supposed to be the man of her destiny—the one she would spend her entire life with.
With her father’s power, surely the engagement could be pressed forward more forcefully.
Yet her father had become terribly busy of late, rarely returning to the mansion, and even when he did come back, his mind seemed far away, consumed by something else.
No matter what she asked of him, his answers were vague and distracted.