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Recalling my past life, addressing Axel with such a reverential title was absurd to me. *Lord* Axel? The thought of bowing my head and attaching such an honorific to this guy made my skin crawl.

‘I’d rather bow to the Mad Dragon than call him Lord Axel.’

As I wrestled with the issue of how to address him, Axel and Lady Jesper continued their conversation.

“Perhaps you’re just tired and mistaken? You’ve been overworking yourself since ‘that incident.’ You haven’t been sleeping well either.”

“…I haven’t been pushing myself that hard.”

“Not pushing yourself? The Duke may not say it, but he’s very worried about you. It’s already been five years…”

“It’s only been five years.”

Their conversation, which I was half-listening to, took a peculiar turn. When I looked up at Axel, his face was slightly twisted in anguish.

“The Archmage of Despair, once hailed as a hero, is now a cowardly murderer who killed her disciple and fled. That’s the truth…”

“Murderer!”

The word slipped out of my mouth before I could stop myself. I quickly clapped both hands over my mouth, but it was too late to pretend I hadn’t spoken. Both Axel and Lady Jesper turned their gazes toward me. I broke into a cold sweat and quickly lowered my head.

“I-I’m sorry…”

My mind was spinning. The “black mage” they were talking about was undoubtedly me. But killing my disciple and fleeing? What in the world were they talking about? When I left my estate in the north, my disciple was perfectly fine. I still vividly remembered how they had politely wished me well on my journey, and I had even reduced their homework as a reward for their good manners.

Clearly, something had gone terribly wrong.

Lady Jesper’s voice, mixed with a sigh, came from above my bowed head.

“Miss Reshia, you should return to your room now. Reflect on how difficult the cleaning was today, and remember not to skip your lessons in the future.”

I quickly responded with a “Yes!” and dashed out of the storage room. I needed to figure out what was going on.

***

Ignoring Lady Jesper’s advice, I headed straight to the library. True to the Elpinard family’s reputation for producing numerous scholars, the library was enormous. It was so vast that I wondered if it might even be larger than the royal library. The shelves seemed to hold rare books and various editions of texts, but my focus was on the most recent records—especially anything related to the Archmage of Despair, Greslin.

However, being a child not yet five years old, my small stature made finding the materials I needed incredibly difficult. I could only see the lower sections of the towering shelves that reached up to the ceiling. Frustrated, I tried jumping up and down, but I could only reach the third shelf at best.

‘Ugh, how frustrating!’  

It was already maddening that my mind was racing while my body refused to keep up. To make matters worse, the limited stamina of a child was holding me back. After all the energy I had expended cleaning the storage room and jumping around the library, my legs gave out, and I could no longer stand.

‘I could easily find the book I need with magic…’  

But then I remembered how Axel had sensed even the smallest shift in mana and had come running. Using magic so carelessly now wasn’t an option. Until I had a clearer understanding of the situation, it was best to lie low.

“Ugh…”  

A groan escaped my lips as I collapsed onto the floor, unable to hold myself up any longer. I had no idea how much of this vast library I’d have to search before finding the book I needed. But just as I sighed and looked up, the book I had been searching for came into view.

“The Fallen Hero: The Archmage of Despair.”

‘This is it!’  

I couldn’t help but mutter, surprised by the book’s location in such a secluded corner. Clearly, it wasn’t a popular read. I grumbled as I reached for the book and pulled it from the shelf. It was thick and heavy, and I struggled a bit to open it.

I started with the section on the life of the Archmage of Despair.  

‘Ha, I know more about this than the author does.’  

Then I moved on to the part about the expedition and the Archmage of Despair.  

‘How could people who weren’t even there describe our adventures in detail? It’s bound to be full of nonsense and wild fantasies.’  

So I skipped that part as well.

And then, finally…  

The chapter titled “The Archmage of Despair Becomes a Murderer.”

‘This is the one!’  

I stopped flipping through the pages and began to read carefully. According to the book, on the day I left for the final battle at the Mad Dragon’s lair, my disciple, Hazen, was found dead at my estate. Initially, I wasn’t a suspect. However, when it was discovered that Hazen had been killed by powerful curse magic, the situation took a dramatic turn.

Curse magic was the domain of black mages, and among curses, the kind that could instantly snuff out a life was only wielded by the most advanced black mages. In this country, only one person was capable of such high-level black magic…

‘Me.’

Due to centuries of persecution, the number of black mages had dwindled to just a handful. And since I hadn’t appeared in public after that day, public opinion had shifted from, “He’s a hero; he couldn’t have done it,” to, “Of course, that’s what black mages are like.”

As years passed, the story solidified into, “The Archmage of Despair killed his disciple and then disappeared.”  

‘If only my body had been found, this wrongful accusation could have been cleared up quickly.’

It seemed that no one had yet found my body, given that the word “murderer” was still attached to my name.  

‘Well… considering I was caught up in such a powerful force at the time,’  

It was likely that my body had completely disintegrated, leaving no remains. People must have assumed I had simply gone into hiding.

However, knowing the truth, I couldn’t help but view Hazen’s death from a different perspective. While Hazen had always seemed lacking in my eyes, he was still a fairly strong mage. For someone to have subdued him so cleanly, they must have been an extremely powerful mage as well…

“Interesting reading material,”  

A familiar voice suddenly broke through my thoughts from behind. I flinched and slowly turned my head, the movement awkward and stiff. Standing there was Axel, his piercing blue eyes fixed on me.

Without any effort, Axel reached out and lifted the book I had been struggling with. The ease with which he handled the thick tome highlighted the stark difference in our physical strength.

“A difficult book for a four-year-old, don’t you think?”  

To others, his tone and expression might have seemed neutral, but I knew Axel well enough to detect the suspicion layered beneath his words. So, he hadn’t just been observing when Lady Jesper sent me away—he’d been listening closely and had decided to follow me.

‘He must have been paying attention to Lady Jesper’s comment about me being the only one in the room when the mana fluctuation occurred.’  

In my former body as Greslin, I would have noticed him coming. But in this child’s body, my senses weren’t as sharp. Those finely tuned instincts had only been honed through countless brushes with danger, and there was no way to replicate that in this young body.

‘What do I do now?’  

I stared at the formidable figure in front of me, racking my brain for a solution. The current situation was delicate: I was under suspicion of having killed my disciple and fled. The question was whether it was wise to reveal my true identity to Axel now.

‘There’s a chance he might not even believe me.’