Overpowered Archmage Doesn’t Hide His Talent

Chapter 143:

Translator: MarcTempest

Proofreader: naturallyInconsistent

Chapter 143: I want you to take care of ■■■ for the rest of your life.

In Trixie’s room at the von Fritz family mansion, a spacious place that was too grand to be called a ‘room’, the father and daughter had a reunion after a long time.​The air was filled with the fragrant scent of tea, but the conversation between them was far from warm.​“Daughter, did you say you want to sell the mansion?”​Isaac von Fritz, the head of the von Fritz family, spoke in a calm and emotionless voice, which made it harder to deal with him.​“Cough─!”​Isaac coughed violently.​Trixie turned her head slightly.​It was not only because the topic was uncomfortable.​She also found it difficult and painful to look at her father’s noticeably aged face.​“You even brought that guy who said such things.”​“…”​Trixie still could not read her father’s expression.​His tone had no intonation, and his face had no emotion.​“You know very well what this estate means.”​“I do.”​It was the place where her mother, who had passed on the ‘Blue Flame’ to her, had left her traces.​It was the fertile land of the von Fritz family.​Trixie added a sentence.​“I also knew that you would oppose it, Dad.”

“You knew, yet you still did it.”​Isaac nodded slowly.​“You must have had a reason to bring him here, even though you knew. I want to hear the reason.”

“There was something I wanted.”​“Something you couldn’t get with gold?”

Trixie nodded.

At the same time, she carefully placed a belt on the desk.​“Yes. It was something I really wanted, and I had to bring him here as the price for getting it. I knew you would refuse anyway.”

“Daughter.”

After uttering those two words, Isaac gazed at Trixie’s face for a while.​“…You’re lying to your father again.”​Trixie eventually lowered her eyes.​Her father never fell for her words.

He never had.

Not once.​“It seems you have a different purpose, my daughter. Did I see it wrong?”​The girl sighed in the end.

If lying didn’t work, she had no choice but to tell the truth.​“Dad.”

“If you have something to say, say it.”

“I have to follow my mother’s will and become an archmage. I have to.”​Trixie spoke calmly.​“But I have to admit, I was able to achieve many magical feats with Flan.”​A genius pretending to be a fool.​That was how she had described herself in the past. But thanks to Flan, she was able to free herself from the obsession of having to appear as a genius.​Now, Trixie was willing to face new challenges.​“If the tower is built, my level will be much higher than it is now.”​“So you were thinking that.”​Isaac nodded as if he understood.​“You’re conflicted. Whether to pursue the level of an archmage, or to protect this estate.”​“Yes.”

“It’s a commendable dilemma, but I can’t praise you for it.”​Isaac’s voice was still flat. But Trixie felt that he sounded more stern.​“You couldn’t make a decision yourself, so you tried to deceive me. Is that it?”​“I didn’t learn how to do this. I don’t know.”

“You should be able to do what you haven’t learned. What the head of the family needs is the intuition to leap over the future.”​“Intuition….”​Trixie muttered the two words blankly.​For the girl who had only done what she had learned perfectly, the leap over the unpredictable future was still too hard.​“I don’t have much time left. What if you were too late, and you couldn’t ask for my opinion?”

“If that happened….”​Trixie furrowed her brows.​After a brief silence, she shook her head.

“…I don’t know.”​“Sigh.”​Isaac exhaled quietly.

It was hard to tell if it was a sigh or a breath, as there was no tone to it.​But it was probably a sigh.​“Daughter.”

Trixie answered as she met her father’s eyes.​

“Yes.”

“You still have a long way to go. You’re not ready to take over as the lord. I’ll meet Flan myself and make the decision.”

“Fine.”

“But.”

Isaac grabbed Trixie’s hand with his left hand.

“Remember, always remember the motto of the von Fritzes.”

“Motto.”

“Yes, motto.”

Trixie nodded quietly.

“To light a fire, you must burn yourself first.”

He muttered softly.

◈

The reception room of the von Fritz family.

“I can’t believe I’m meeting the heroes of the rumor.”

Isaac’s first words as he appeared made Louis and Becky, who were standing next to him, bow their heads quickly.

“Hello! I’m the mage Becky!”

“I’m Louis.”

The lord waved his hand lightly as if to tell them not to be nervous.

“Make yourselves comfortable. You’re the representatives who travel with my daughter, so I should treat you well.”

“Oh, thank you!”

Becky bowed her head again.

I looked at Isaac slowly.

His long hair and beard were dark blue. 

He was thin, but his energy was flawless, showing that he was still a great mage.

But there was one thing that stood out.

‘He’s like a doll.’

Isaac’s voice had no highs or lows, and his face had no expression. 

He looked like a doll that mimicked a human.

As I thought that, his eyes were only on me, and I finally opened my mouth.

“Mage. I’m Flan.”

Isaac showed a faint reaction when he heard my greeting. 

He seemed to smile in his own way.

Becky lifted her foot and whispered in my ear.

“Hey, Flan! You should be more, you know, polite!”

“This is polite enough.”

“…Now that I think about it, it seems so.”

Becky gave up easily.

Cough-!

Then. 

Isaac coughed so hard that his body shook. 

The situation looked serious, and the atmosphere became tense for a moment.

“Excuse me. I’m not feeling well. Please understand.”

He didn’t look well at all, but he reassured us and opened his mouth again.

“I’ve heard the story and looked over the plan. You want to demolish this mansion and build a tower, right?”

“Yes.”

“It’s quite a shock to hear that all of a sudden. Can we talk alone for a while?”

I nodded silently.

It would be faster to talk to the lord alone, so I rather wanted that too.

Suddenly, I looked back and saw Becky mouthing something frantically.

‘Good, luck!’

Isaac and I walked outside the mansion for a while.

He walked slowly, tapping the ground with his cane, but I didn’t mind. 

I liked the weather and the scenery.

The sky was blue as if painted with paint, and the wind was gentle. 

It was a pleasant day that anyone would be tempted to go on a picnic.

No, they seemed to be already on a picnic.

“Nice to meet you, lord!”

“Oh my? Isn’t that the person I saw in the newspaper?”

“Please take good care of our bear princess!”

They were very different from Judith’s maids, who looked down on me as soon as they saw me. 

They were cheerful and enjoying the picnic while doing their jobs.

The reaction of the people in the territory was not much different. 

Everyone who met Isaac greeted him brightly, and there was no lie in their smiles.

Isaac muttered.

“You’ll need to adapt. They’re all full of life.”

“It’s a nice place.”

“Yes. It’s a nice place. A nice place…”

Isaac’s eyes were deep as he muttered.

As we followed Isaac’s back for a long time, a huge garden appeared. 

It was so big that it had to be called a ‘hill’.

“Interesting.”

I muttered without realizing it.

The garden’s uniqueness was not limited to its size. 

At the end of a giant plant stem, there were books instead of flowers. 

The sight of the book buds forming a garden was a mystery in itself.

“Are the books holding magic? Impressive.”

“You’re quick to notice. Most people are just amazed and lose their minds.”

Letters are just letters.

Formulas written in letters are also just formulas, but the story changes if they have great power. 

If they are written somewhere, they become self-sufficient and manifest their magic.

Magic books.

In the previous world, these books were called that. It goes without saying that they were hard to get.

But now, they were spread out in the form of a garden.

As a magician, it was only natural that I was greatly interested in them.

“It must not have been easy to collect them.”

“I am a von Fritz. I can collect enough of what is rare to make it common. But have you never heard of the von Fritz’s garden?”

“Not at all.”

“That’s strange. I was proud that it would be very famous among the mages of this world.”

In the middle of the garden, there was a very large book that was spread out like a chair. He sat down first and then invited me to sit across from him.

“I was impressed to see the representatives of the magic department with my own eyes. They had excellent magic power for their age, and they were also polite and fresh.”

“They are carefully selected gems.”

“But if you ask me if I remember their faces, I don’t.”

Isaac tapped the ground with his wand, and a book shaped like a flower bud opened and spat out a teacup and a teapot.

He tilted the teapot with telekinesis, and soon two teacups were filled.

“Flan, I couldn’t take my eyes off you. I was amazed as soon as I saw you. Would you like a cup?”

He said he was amazed, but his tone was flat, making my ears awkward. I quietly accepted the teacup he offered me.

“Indeed, you are the center of change. Even though your words were short, your dignity was the best. The two who stood next to you looked like children.”

“Well, whatever.”

I took a sip of tea.

The fragrance that lingered in my mouth was very luxurious. It was the same scent that Trixie used to spray with perfume.

“Now, let’s get to the point.”

“Yeah. Let’s do that.”

Isaac nodded his head.

And he took out a round piece of paper from his bosom and unfolded it.

“I looked over the plan you gave me carefully. This territory is the most suitable for building a magic tower.”

“Yeah.”

“I also confirmed that you would pay me twice the land price, and that you would make von Fritz’s people live in a much better environment than they do now…”

Isaac rolled up the paper again.

“There is also value that is not visible to the eye. You can’t solve this with money alone.”

“That answer doesn’t sound like a rejection.”

I put down the teacup and spoke.

“Tell me what else you want. I’m building a magic tower, so I’ll consider a lot of things too.”

“Okay. Then I’ll ask for one thing.”

Isaac also put down the teacup.

He stared at me intently.

“I want you to take care of Trixie for the rest of your life.”

At his slightly subtle and somewhat meaningful remark, there was a moment of silence in the garden.

“…At least, I’m going to raise her until she can find her own way of magic.”

“That’s not what I mean. Flan.”

His face had blue eyes that resembled Trixie’s.

He looked me in the eye, and he was desperately showing that what he was saying now was sincere.

Suddenly, I felt the jasmine scent getting stronger.

“If you marry Trixie, I’ll agree too.”

He proposed that.