Genius Wizard who sees Rainbows- Chapter 315

**#315. Reunion (5)**

—

“Grrrk, grrk…!”

Ray stared coldly at the doctor, whose eyes were gradually rolling back.

If he swung the fireball right now, he could erase the doctor from existence, leaving not even a trace of ashes behind.

But if he did that, the whereabouts of the red shard would remain unknown.

*Crack.*

So he had to endure it.

For the sake of the original goal.

Then a sudden, intense headache made Ray frown.

‘This is…’

Memories were resurfacing.

A world of ashen gray and the ancient races.

A vast plain and the seven-colored band.

At first, he thought it was the memory where the Doctor and the World Tree had appeared, but he soon realized it was not.

Because the perspective was different.

The ancient races gathered under the rainbow were all looking this way.

At that moment, Ray understood.

That the owner of this memory was the silhouette of light that had appeared beneath the rainbow.

And that this was one of the mysterious memories that had been knocking on his mind all along.

The silhouette of light opened its mouth.

At the same time, Ray’s lips moved.

— *I will…*

“I will…”

— *teach you emotion.*

“…teach you emotion.”

The doctor’s eyes widened.

Ray swung his other hand and hurled the fireball into the wall.

*Boom—!*

“Gah, ghk, huff… huff…”

The doctor was released from Ray’s grip and rolled across the floor.

Panting, he looked up at Ray with disbelief in his eyes.

“You…! Why…! Why didn’t you kill me?!”

“Redran.”

The doctor flinched.

“No parent kills their own child.”

A calm and quiet voice.

The doctor sat there blankly for a long time.

Then suddenly burst into mad laughter.

“Kuhuhuhu…! Kahahahahaha—!”

Tears welled in his eyes.

The black fear in his vessel scattered like ash and vanished.

Then silence followed.

The doctor no longer laughed.

With a face that looked both relieved and empty, he passed away while gazing up at the ceiling.

Mana flowed out of the doctor’s body and spread around the room.

It was a phenomenon that occurred when a living being died of natural causes.

“……”

Ray gently closed the doctor’s eyes.

His memories were tangled and confused.

He was the rainbow.

And at the same time, he was a boy named Ray.

Sensing a trace of mana, he searched the doctor’s robes.

What he pulled out was a gem emitting a brilliant red light.

‘A fragment of the rainbow.’

The surface was covered with magical traces indicating attempts to destroy it.

Had the doctor tried it?

If so, why?

After a moment’s thought, Ray came to a conclusion.

The doctor had likely intended to gather all the rainbow fragments and destroy them.

To prevent emotion from spreading across the world again.

And since he couldn’t destroy them by his own power, he may have intended to use Ray’s power to do it.

If that were true, it explained why the doctor provoked him into attacking.

Ray absorbed the red fragment and looked around.

The underground chamber, now without a master, was filled with silence.

*Crunch.*

Fragments of bloodstone crunched underfoot like broken glass.

Ray recalled the emotion the doctor had shown in his final moment.

What had the doctor feared?

And why had that fear dissipated in the end?

Lost in thought for a while, Ray finally climbed the stairs and emerged above ground.

His field of vision brightened. Though it was a scene he had seen just tens of minutes ago, it somehow looked different now.

*Wuuung!*

He summoned all the shards he possessed and floated them in the air.

Red. Orange. Yellow.

Green. Blue. Indigo.

Now, the only piece left to complete the rainbow was the violet shard.

“……”

He looked around.

He was at the outer edge of Sector 1. There was no place left to climb.

Even the upper stream of the Elton River, which flowed into a canyon, would eventually lead to a closed-off lake.

There were no more places left to search.

But Ray knew exactly where he needed to go.

*Crackle—*

He tore open the space and stepped through.

A burst of light filled his vision, then disappeared, and the location changed.

Damp, milk carton-like buildings.

Passersby with lifeless expressions.

A faded, grayish landscape covered in grime.

The place where everything began.

The lowest of all places: Sector 50.

*Tap—tap—*

People on the streets glanced at Ray as he walked by.

But they quickly turned their eyes away and focused on their own business.

Their lethargic movements and the gloom in their vessels showed they had no energy to spare for others’ lives.

*Tap.*

Ray paused.

He looked up at a street sign.

‘Street 17.’

On a day of pouring black rain, he had once been in a chase here with Hector’s henchmen.

It had been an inevitable event.

No organization would overlook a street orphan caught stealing food from a warehouse.

‘Only Hector’s men are around. This used to be Niles’ territory.’

It was as expected.

Niles’ group had been annihilated after a surprise attack from Hector’s faction, backed by a magician.

What would become of Sector 50’s streets after that was obvious.

Still, Ray had thought that at least some would have survived and continued their lives somehow.

‘Are they all dead?’

Liam, Charlie, Marcus—all of them.

Considering Hector’s brutality, even if some survived the ambush, they were probably executed.

Ray also felt a strange discomfort.

There were oddly few orphans below a certain age.

‘This is where I fought Ron’s gang. And over there…’

*Tap, tap, tap.*

He retraced his memories and walked until he reached the riverbank.

Along the way, he encountered many residents.

But not one person recognized him.

In the past, Ray’s hair was ashen, and he had looked like a mere boy.

*Whooshhhh—*

The polluted water and floating trash.

The Elton River winding below the bank looked just as it always had.

So did the bridge underpass.

Two things had changed, however.

The tent beneath the bridge was gone.

And the ash-haired orphan who had once lived there had passed beyond the edge of boyhood, stepping into a new direction in life.

As the river lapped against the shore and Ray lost himself in thought—

*Vroooom—*

A truck approached the bridge from the edge of the sector.

One of the passengers in the back was a familiar face.

Ray, cloaking himself in stealth and speed magic, followed the truck.

Before long, the truck stopped in front of a shabby building in the slums.

“Move it! You damn slugs!”

“Useless trash! Want to skip dinner too?”

The ones who got out of the driver’s seat were Hector’s men.

They climbed into the back and kicked at the people inside, forcing them to disembark.

“O-okay! Just a second!”

“Ugh! Ahh!”

Clothes stained with black marks.

Sweat-soaked skin and gaunt faces.

Restraints on their hands—these were clearly forced laborers captured by Hector for the mines.

“You big, slow bastard! Get off already!”

The last prisoner got especially harsh treatment.

Shaved head. Tall and burly.

A solid, muscular build.

It was Humphrey.

The man who had helped Ray escape Sector 50 in exchange for finding his brother sold to the magician’s city.

Ray was confused.

As far as he knew, Humphrey was one of Hector’s officers.

“You traitorous bastard…!”

The gang member paused for a second when he saw Humphrey’s fierce glare.

Then, ashamed and angry, he struck him harder.

“You bastard! Traitor! What are you staring at me for?!”

*Wham! Thud! Whack!*

Though Humphrey collapsed from the blows and grimaced in pain, he didn’t utter a single groan.

“Hah… huff… this stubborn freak…”

The beating only ended when the attacker got tired.

The prisoners were then herded into a dormitory, while the gang members parked the truck in a garage and drew their guns for guard duty.

“Think the game’ll happen again tonight?”

“Of course it will. Rex was pissed yesterday after losing hard.”

Ray slipped past them unnoticed and entered the building.

Following the mana he sensed from Humphrey, he passed through the back door into a courtyard.

Humphrey sat slumped against a wall, staring blankly at the sky.

Ray dispelled his invisibility magic and immediately spoke.

“Humphrey.”

“…!”

Startled, Humphrey turned to look at Ray and couldn’t take his eyes off his face.

Soon, with a shocked expression and a stammering voice, he spoke.

“You, you’re…!”

“I’m back.”

Humphrey’s mouth opened and closed without any words coming out.

Then, with a choked throat, he finally managed to utter a sentence.

“It’s been two years, hasn’t it. Did you come back because you were sure it was time?”

“Of course. Can you tell me what’s happened in the meantime?”

Humphrey clasped his trembling hands together to calm himself and did his best to explain the situation in a composed manner.

After the war, all surviving members of the Niles’s organization were executed.

And under the ensuing tyranny, the residents of the sector had been suffering.

“…And I ended up like this because I rebelled against Hector and failed.”

“I didn’t see any children on the streets.”

“That’s Hector’s doing too. All orphans under the age of ten are being captured and sold to the upper sectors as commodities.”

They exchanged a few more stories about the Hector faction.

Looking at the scars that covered Humphrey’s entire body, Ray spoke.

“Thank you… for holding on.”

Humphrey shook his head.

“If it hadn’t been for you, I probably wouldn’t have made it. No matter how slim the chance, I had hope that you would come back someday. That’s what kept me going.”

A deep purple emotion surged in Humphrey’s bowl.

“You don’t need to worry anymore. Every problem in Sector 50 will be resolved. But please, wait just a little longer. I’ll be back. There’s something I need to do first.”

“All right. Don’t worry about me.”

*Crackle—*

At that moment, a rift in space appeared, and Humphrey’s eyes widened in astonishment.

Ray gazed at Humphrey’s emotions for a brief moment, then stepped through the rift.

*Fwoosh.*

A familiar intersection appeared.

The day after the night of the golem attack.

It was a place they had passed while fleeing the sector from Hector’s forces.

And—

“It’s been a while, Granny Viola.”

It was also a place where one of Sector 50’s figures remained unchanged, like an old piece of scenery.

Ray looked at Viola, who sat on a mat with her face turned toward him, her eyes closed.