Anyone who knew Roland Blackhand well enough would come to such a conclusion. Even I became certain that he was a bastard as I regained more of his memories in my dreams.
“…If he wasn’t a bastard, he was definitely a scumbag.”
Stealing, scamming, robbery, assassination, extortion, kidnapping, rape… Fine, the last one’s just a joke—rape wouldn’t bring him any personal benefits. Physical pleasure was meaningless to someone hellbent on revenge. But the other evil actions could give him personal benefits as well as Fate Points which he could strengthen himself with, so of course he wouldn’t hesitate to do anything.
In order to obtain the strength necessary for revenge, he hid his real name while studying at the Cloud Tower and unhesitatingly betrayed Amelia, who had treated him so well (although Amelia kind of deserved it, if you looked at what she was really like in secret). In fact, he had even felt that the proper path of obtaining power was too slow, so he secretly became Harloys’ disciple and researched taboo undead magic and life modification techniques. It could be said that he had zero moral limits whatsoever when it came to obtaining power.
He had zero limits on all those earlier mentioned evil actions all in order to find his enemies. He also accepted his own disciples only because they could bring him benefits. From a certain standpoint, he received what he deserved when his disciples ended up betraying him like that.
Even I didn’t expect that the former Child of Light would become fallen to such a degree, twisted so much by hatred and a desire for revenge. The more memories I saw of my past self, the more I felt like I was different from him and his utter disregard for all moral limits of any type.
Hatred was capable of making anyone go insane. It would turn even a saint into the most vicious of villains. Now that I thought back on the past, perhaps Roland Blackhand’s personality had been utterly twisted after he’d returned from death, carrying such a deep grudge.
Perhaps I should even thank the terrible end he had finally met, which left his memories and soul incomplete. I should also thank the fact that he had successfully achieved his revenge (or so he thought at the time—he was unaware of the existence behind the scenes that I just found out from Sam) which helped somewhat reduce his hatred. Otherwise, my next life as Rolo wouldn’t have come about.
Holy Knight Rolo was actually the life I led where my personality was closest to my original self. If I still had my twisted personality as Roland Blackhand when I met Adam and Little Red, something frightening would likely have happened.
But from a certain standpoint, perhaps my dark personality had more charisma. At the very least, I had met and befriended Amelia, Harloys, Evelyn and Cher in that life. In fact, that life appeared to be my only one where I could be considered a winner in life with women. Were the legends really true? Did women only love bad boys, after all?
“The past Roland is different from how I am today. We need to look forward to the future.” Perhaps I was fooling myself here, but that was the only way I could look at things.
However, all my lives would have parts in common. Baron Roland Blackhand was still Roland, an incredibly sly transmigrator. Ice Hallucination, the culmination of Roland Blackhand’s lifetime of effort, wouldn’t possibly be something simple.
A crystal-clear droplet emerged on the ground and transformed into an ice crystal seed. This seed pierced through the snow on the ground and sprouted, gradually and slowly. Its tiny roots were ice crystals and its leaves were decorated with dew droplets. Meanwhile, the clouds in the sky started sprinkling a light shower. With the rainwater’s nourishment, this ice flower started blooming, but unlike a normal flower its ice crystal petals let off a cold, frosty mist.
“You actually hid this ace up your sleeve back in the day? It’s amazing how you were capable of manipulating simple ice magic to such an extent.” The silly cat’s assessment made me feel rather proud. Only an expert would be able to best understand this performance.
Although on the surface it appeared to be a simple magical performance using snow and ice, it actually showed off every single form of water: snow, frost, ice, cloud, rain, dew, mist and steam. To accomplish this one would require outstanding control and a deep understanding of water’s various forms.
With how magic worked in Eich, wind, fire, water and earth—the four major elements— constituted the foundation of all magic. Ice magic was categorized as a branch of water magic, which meant that most ice magic experts would need to first study water magic for a lengthy period of time before starting to study that of ice. Before an ice mage could summon ice, they would first need to learn how to summon and control water.
It would be crucial for water mages to understand every single form of water. Controlling water while conforming to its natural properties would make things much easier for any water mage. Certain special magic spells also required a deep understanding of the forms of water, such as the spell “Summon Mist” which was capable of creating a large patch of fog. Water magic based hallucination spells were the same.
Roland Blackhand became an ice mage just like most others, by first studying water magic. However, he was a transmigrator from Earth who understood the scientific properties of water far better than an ordinary mage. Incorporating his knowledge of physics into his magic, he diverged from other mages, who simply treated temperature as the main factor influencing water’s forms. They would adjust their magic output to create the desired form of water, but Roland understood that water’s forms were the result of numerous factors in the environment, such as air pressure and gravity. He even performed countless experiments to confirm the conditions necessary to achieve each form of water, like the different amounts of magic energy output or an environment with high air pressure.
Of course, only having a better understanding of how to change water’s forms would slightly improve his water magic power—it wouldn’t be very meaningful. Yet Roland Blackhand hired an alchemist to create a special magic ring for him. This ring had many special settings for the magic output required for each form of water recorded into it. This meant that as long as he injected mana into this ring, he could instantly choose whichever form of water he desired to use. For instance, even though he was clearly using ice magic mana, he could still create water colder than zero degrees Celsius. He was far faster at casting water-based spells—and more efficient—than any ordinary mage. In fact, he could freely change his magic to create any form of water at a speed more than ten times faster than other mages at his power level.
He had eight such water-controlling rings created for himself. He wore another two magic rings, a total of one ring on each finger. In order to conceal his specialty as well as the weakness that he relied on ring accessories, he wore black magical gloves all the time. He also called himself Roland Blackhand to hide the real reason why his hands were always seen in black gloves. That was the origin of his self-created name.
Archmages typically proved their power with very high-level magic spells. Being able to manipulate all forms of water at a much faster rate didn’t mean that he was capable of using the highest-level spells which could help him win. Normally, this should have only been a tiny advantage. However, Roland Blackhand had successfully created his own unique fighting style using this specialty of his.
My current practice duel against Little Red was a perfect example of the “Blackhand style.”
The rampaging Red Dragon before me displayed her excellent combat techniques and prowess. Yet she remained forever unable to catch her sly opponent. Her powerful punches would be led astray by the water and ice twirling around her. She would slip or trip over ice that suddenly appeared around her feet. And whenever she caught a glimpse of my shadow, her dragonbreath only managed to attack a reflection in an ice mirror. The Roland that she managed to capture with her attacks turned out to be nothing more than a statue of ice and snow.
“Come out here, you bastard!”
The more Little Red fought against me, the more frustrated and impatient she became. However, she remained unable to catch me.
Meanwhile, the mist around her was imperceptibly becoming thicker. However, this icy mist, which could freeze an ordinary human to death, was only capable of making Little Red’s human form unable to clearly see around her.
Finally, a sharp blade of ice silently stabbed out of the mist without warning.
“Roland, do you think I’m an idiot!?”
Little Red turned around and punched the blade of ice but whiffed, as the ice blade directly dispersed into snow. The ice blade had only been a feint.
Five spears of ice suddenly stabbed out of the ground, directly aiming for Little Red’s thighs…
*Clang!*
Unfortunately, this too didn’t succeed in breaking past her defenses. But when the furious Red Dragon turned around, she felt something against her neck: a sharp line of ice capable of easily beheading any human.
*Shing!*
This line of ice which was sharp enough to cut through even the frozen earth still didn’t manage to damage her in the least. I once again failed to break through her defenses…
However, a sudden torrential downpour descended from the sky. A cloud appeared approximately three meters above Little Red’s head—the rain fell only on Little Red herself. Before she could escape from being drenched in water, something Red Dragons hated more than anything—a ball of cold water—suddenly appeared around her head, not letting her breath.
“Graahhhh!!!!!”
Meeting with breathing difficulties, Little Red was furious. Ever since the beginning of this duel, she hadn’t even managed to touch me even once. The ball of water on her head infuriated her so much that she completely forgot about her promises to “not use dragon form” and “not fight at a power level above Legend”. She directly transformed into a dragon and then…
Ein Mezus took a deep breath and soared into the sky.
After the Immemorial Red Dragon used her dragonbreath to completely annihilate the entire patch of land the duel had taken place on, she started worrying if she had gone overboard. However, she then saw that Roland was actually drinking tea on a nearby mountain together with the black cat and the Supreme Immemorial White Dragon in his young elf form. And so…
Ein Mezus took a deep breath…
Ein Mezus took another deep breath…
Alright then. By the time the furious Red Dragon transformed back into her human form, this entire area of Frigidwinter Earth was completely wreathed in flames. She arrived just in time to hear Harloys’ assessment of Roland Blackhand’s Ice Hallucination technique.
“Such a dirty style of fighting. It doesn’t have even the slightest speck of a mage’s elegance or pride. It’s a purely practical technique for killing one’s enemies, just like what gutter rats (the thief job class) would use…”
Indeed, Harloys was absolutely correct. Ice Hallucination was actually quite weak in attack power by itself. Although Roland Blackhand reached Legend power level in the end, he didn’t know a single forbidden spell, and he actually barely knew any large AOE magic spells. His magic fully focused on confusing his opponents and obstructing their attacks with tiny tricks. What killed his enemy in the end would be the “Blackhand style” of stabbing them from behind.
“…Although it’s a dirty way of fighting that I don’t even want to look at, I must admit it’s quite strong, quite fatal and quite difficult to defend against, especially for mortals. Your style of attacking has given me much inspiration. Excellent.”
White Dragons were all ice elemental dragons. Since Sam was a Supreme Immemorial White Dragon, he was doubtlessly a world-class ice mage as well. I silently nodded at his assessment.
Yes, Ice Hallucination was a technique born purely for the sake of killing others—especially fragile humans. I had countless methods to confuse my opponents. The ice blades that would suddenly appear to attack them were only feints. All the forms of water I controlled—such as steam, mist, and rain—actually existed at subzero temperatures through my unparalleled control over water. This was the true killer, as my enemies wouldn’t be as on guard against them. They would freeze them to death without them even realizing it.
“Rather than saying that Roland Blackhand was a mage, it should be said that he was a magic-wielding assassin.”
There were plenty of powerful individuals far stronger than Roland Blackhand that ended up dying to him. Even a Myth-ranked archmage had died to a sharp line of ice hidden in the mist after accidentally slipping. “Baron Blackhand” was no mere nickname.
The fact that even Little Red in her human form lost to me made me rather proud of myself. I knew that even in her human form, she could easily defeat a human Saint-ranked warrior. However, no matter how great her Strength stat was, it would all be meaningless if she couldn’t touch me. This fighting style was the perfect counter to warriors who relied on brute force—as long as I was able to break past their defenses, of course.
The moment Little Red landed on the ground, I smiled and handed her two bottles of excellent centuries-old wine. This instantly quelled her anger as she happily went off to drink her alcohol.
“How was it? Can you give me any pointers?”
I requested Little Red to have a practice duel against me and even asked Sam and Harloys to watch. Naturally, this wouldn’t only be for fun. I was hoping for these two magical experts to give me some pointers. Although I had recovered just about all of Roland Blackhand’s abilities, I didn’t find a method yet to make a breakthrough so that my ice magic abilities could reach the Legend rank.
Out of the two before me, one was a magical genius with the wonderful nickname of “All-Knowing” while the other was an ice element Supreme Immemorial White Dragon. If even they couldn’t help me with this, I would likely have to return to the snow mountain to try and find a path for myself.
However, I could only give up helplessly when I saw the two experts before me silently shaking their heads.
“It’s not that I don’t have any ideas for you…”
My eyes lit up momentarily when I heard Harloys speak up, but then I could already guess what she was going to say next: something I probably didn’t want to hear.
“…It’s that everyone needs to find their own path. I’m worried that if I tell you, it’ll actually be a negative influence for you.”
Sam finished what Harloys was about to say. I had predicted what he was going to say, and understood why he’d said so as well.
Every powerful individual achieved their power levels step by step. Nobody obtained their power through luck and coincidence. Of course I knew that “Everyone has their own path to take. Someone else’s path will be a narrower one with limited potential.” But the problem was that I still couldn’t come up with a path on my own no matter how much I thought about things. Why else would I ask for help?
The deadline I had set for myself to improve my power level was approaching. I had very little time left. If this part of my plan slowed me down, it might cause problems for my other plans. I would naturally be anxious about this.
[Perhaps I have a method that can help you.]
But at this moment my System, which had been abnormally silent recently, suddenly made her presence known.